Vähenevä

Vähenevä is a Finnish adjective and present active participle formed from the verb vähentyä, meaning to decrease or diminish. It describes something that is becoming smaller, less in number, amount, or intensity, or generally on a reducing trend. As a participle, vähenevä can be used both attributively before a noun, as in vähenevä määrä (a decreasing amount), and predicatively with a copula, as in määrä on vähenevä.

Morphology and usage: Vähenevä behaves like other Finnish present participles, inflecting to match the noun it modifies in number and case. In front of a noun it typically takes the standard adjective forms (vähenevä, vähenevän, vähenevää, etc.), for example, vähenevä määrä, väheneviä feittejä. It is commonly used in scientific, statistical, and journalistic contexts to describe trends, processes, or states that are becoming smaller or less common. An adverbial form exists as vähenevästi to describe the manner of a decrease, though it is less frequent in everyday language.

Contexts and examples: The term is frequently encountered in discussions of demography, economics, ecology, and public health to indicate trajectories that are declining. Examples include a μειnerva: “vähenevä väestö” (decreasing population), “vähenevä määrä resursseja” (decreasing amount of resources), and “vähenevä trendi” (decreasing trend).

See also: vähentyä, dwindling, decreasing trend. The concept is closely linked to other Finnish always-decreasing descriptors used in data analysis and reporting.