etsittävien

Etsittävien is a Finnish grammatical form used to indicate a group of things or people that are to be sought or looked for. It is the genitive plural form of the participial adjective etsittävä, meaning “to be sought” or “to be looked for.” In practice, etsittävien appears in noun phrases to mark possession or association with the head noun, signifying the set of targets of a search or inquiry.

Typical usage occurs in contexts such as law enforcement, missing-person notices, and investigative materials. Examples of phrases include etsittävien henkilöiden joukko (the group of people to be sought) and etsittävien esineiden lista (the list of objects to be found). The form helps distinguish the target group from the act of seeking itself and from other related phrases in Finnish grammar.

Grammatical note: etsittävien is a genitive plural form, so it accompanies a head noun in a genitive construction. It contrasts with etsittävät, the nominative plural meaning “the ones to be sought.” The choice of form depends on the sentence’s syntactic role and the noun it modifies.

Context and register: Etsittävien is most common in written or formal language, including official bulletins, news reporting, and police communications. In everyday speech, speakers more often use simpler alternatives such as etsittävät henkilöt or explicit phrases like henkilöt, jotka ovat etsintävissä.

Overall, etsittävien functions as a specialized grammatical tool to denote the set of targets designated for search or investigation, embedded within larger noun phrases.