eipalautettavan

Eipalautettavan is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective eipalautettava, meaning not returnable. It arises in Finnish language usage, especially in consumer contracts and legal or technical texts, to describe items or goods that cannot be returned. The construction reflects the negation ei- attached to the participial form palautettava, which comes from the verb palauttaa (to return) and expresses the characteristic of being eligible for return.

The word is formed from ei- (negation) plus palautettava (returnable), with the suffixing that allows it to decline to agree with the noun it modifies. In practice, eipalautettavan is used to modify a noun in a genitive phrase, for example eipalautettavan tuotteen, meaning “of the non-returnable product.” The corresponding non-genitive forms would be eipalautettava tuotteen or ei-palautettava tuote, depending on the grammatical structure and style, while the genitive singular eipalautettavan is common in formal wording.

Orthography varies slightly by style guide; some writers use a hyphen, ei-palautettava, especially when the phrase could be misread or when clarity is needed in long noun phrases. Others write it as a single word, eipalautettava, with inflected forms such as eipalautettavan in the genitive. The choice often depends on the document’s formality and the prevailing editorial standard.

See also: palauttaa, Finnish compound adjectives, negation prefix ei-, Finnish grammar.