erillisten

Erillisten is a Finnish inflected form of the adjective erillinen, which means separate, distinct, or independent. Specifically, erillisten is the genitive plural form used before a plural noun to indicate a relationship of belonging or association, such as “the separate parts’” or “of the separate parts.”

Morphology and usage: Finnish adjectives agree with the noun they modify in number and case. For a plural noun in the genitive case, the adjective erillinen takes the ending -isten, yielding erillisten. This form is common in technical, architectural, legal, and descriptive writing. For example, erillisten osien määrä means the number of separate parts, and erillisten rakennusten kustannukset means the costs of the separate buildings. In contrast, the nominative plural form erilliset is used when the phrase simply denotes separate items as a subject or object (the separate parts).

Context and nuance: The term functions grammatically rather than as a standalone concept. It is typically part of larger noun phrases and does not denote a specific, widely recognized entity. Because it is a grammatical inflection, its exact interpretation depends on the accompanying noun, e.g., erillisten yksiköiden kokonaisuus (the entirety of the separate units) versus erilliset yksiköt (the separate units).

Relation to related terms: The base adjective erillinen is often used with various case endings to describe separation or distinction in different contexts. Related forms include erilliset (nominative plural) and erillisen (singular genitive). In most texts, erillisten serves as a standard genitive plural ending rather than a fixed term with a separate definition.

See also: erillinen, erilliset.