ehdollinen

Ehdollinen is a Finnish adjective meaning conditional or contingent, derived from the noun ehto, meaning condition, with the suffix -llinen. The term is used in various disciplines to describe statements, clauses, or events that depend on a specified condition being met. It also appears in mathematical and logical contexts to denote an implication or dependence on another factor.

In Finnish grammar, ehdollinen lause refers to a conditional clause that expresses a hypothetical situation. These clauses are commonly introduced by words such as jos (if) or joskin, and they describe outcomes that hinge on a condition. For example, in a sentence like Jos sataa, otan sateenvarjon, the main clause action depends on the condition stated in the subordinate clause. Ehdollinen constructions are a standard device in both formal and everyday Finnish to discuss possibilities, consequences, or plans.

In logic and philosophy, ehdollinen lause denotes a conditional statement, typically expressed as if P then Q (P → Q). The truth of Q is understood to follow from the truth of P. Such statements are central to deductive reasoning, proofs, and formal systems, and they underpin many formal languages used in mathematics and computer science.

In probability and statistics, ehdollinen is used to describe conditional quantities, such as ehdollinen todennäköisyys P(A|B), the probability of A given B, and ehdollinen odotusarvo E[X|Y], the expected value of X conditioned on Y. These concepts quantify how information about one event or variable changes the assessment of another.

See also: conditional, implication, conditional probability, conditional expectation.