aikuisten

Aikuinen is a Finnish noun meaning an adult, i.e., a person who has reached full legal or social maturity. The word is used to describe individuals and as the base for expressions that refer to adults as a group. The form aikuisten is the genitive plural of aikuinen and is used to indicate possession or relation to adults, roughly translating as “of adults” or “adults’.” The singular genitive is aikuisen, and the nominative plural is aikuiset. The allative form aikuisille is used when saying “for adults.”

Usage and examples

Common phrases include aikuisten oikeudet (the rights of adults), aikuisten ohjelma (an adult program), and aikuisten sisäänpääsy (adults’ admission). In contexts where the meaning is “for adults,” Finnish typically uses aikuisille rather than aikuisten, which is more likely to appear in possessive or group-referential constructions.

Usage notes

In everyday language, aikuisten is most often found in noun phrases that denote ownership or relation to adults, such as policies, services, or content labeled as belonging to adults. It rarely stands alone as a word and is not used to indicate a generic category of people outside of a possessive or referential function. For signage or marketing that means “for adults,” aikuisille is usually preferred.

In summary, aikuisten functions as the genitive plural form of aikuinen and is used to express ownership or association with adults in Finnish, distinct from the allative form aikuisille which signals “for adults.”