Unvollständigen

Unvollständigen is the declined form of the German adjective unvollständig, meaning incomplete or unfinished. It is not a separate word, but an inflected form used when the adjective appears before a noun in plural, typically after a determiner or in certain cases of declension. The base meaning remains “not complete” or “lacking certain elements.”

In German grammar, adjectives decline according to number, case, gender, and the presence or absence of a determiner. The form unvollständigen is primarily the plural ending used when an attributive adjective precedes a plural noun with a determiner (or another determiner-like word). For example: die unvollständigen Berichte (the incomplete reports), den unvollständigen Berichten zufolge (according to the incomplete reports). After determiners that mark plural, the weak ending -en appears in nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive plural in most common constructions.

Without a determiner, the attributive plural form changes: unvollständige Berichte (incomplete reports) uses the strong ending -e in the nominative/accusative plural. In other cases, such as with prepositions that require the dative, you can also see unvollständigen in phrases like mit unvollständigen Daten (with incomplete data), where -en marks the dative plural form.

Common contexts for unvollständigen include scientific, technical, and administrative writing, where data sets, reports, or documents are described as incomplete or partially missing. The corresponding English equivalents are incomplete, partial, or unfinished.

Etymology traces back to unvollständig, formed from un- (not) and vollständig (complete), with -en as a plural attributive ending in many contexts.