Tyttö

Tyttö is a Finnish noun meaning "girl." It denotes a female child or a young woman and is the standard everyday term for a girl in Finnish. It is a regular inflected noun with the following basic forms: nominative singular tyttö; genitive singular tytön; partitive singular tyttöä; nominative plural tytöt; genitive plural tyttöjen; partitive plural tyttöjä.

Etymology and history: Tyttö is a loanword borrowed from Swedish, related to the word tjej, and the borrowing occurred during the early modern period. In historical and some formal registers, older terms such as neito may still be found, but tyttö is by far the common everyday usage.

Usage and compounds: Tyttö is used for girls and young women in a broad sense. It appears in everyday phrases such as pieni tyttö (a little girl) and in a variety of compound terms, including tyttöystävä (girlfriend). The word is generally neutral in ordinary contexts, though it can be part of discussions about gender, youth, or cultural portrayals of girls.

Cultural note: In Finnish media and literature, tyttö is frequently encountered as a straightforward descriptor as well as a thematic element reflecting youth, adolescence, or femininity. While primarily a linguistic term, its usage can carry different connotations depending on tone, context, and accompanying adjectives.