harhauttaviin

Harhauttaviin is a Finnish adjective form meaning “misleading” or “deceptive.” It is the illative plural form of the adjective harhauttava, which describes something that causes misbelief or mistaken conclusions. The form harhauttaviin is used to modify a noun that is in the illative plural, for example when referring to things into which one could be misled.

Morphology and formation: harhauttava is derived from the verb harhauttaa, meaning “to mislead.” The present participle suffix -va/-vä is added to form an adjective meaning “misleading.” When the noun it modifies is in the illative plural, the adjective takes the ending -iin, yielding harhauttaviin. This pattern mirrors Finnish agreement between adjective and noun across cases and numbers, and it is commonly seen in written Finnish.

Usage: harhauttaviin is used primarily in formal or analytical contexts, such as journalism, academic writing, or policy discussions, to describe content, arguments, claims, or information that could mislead readers or listeners. It often appears with nouns in illative case, indicating movement toward or pointing to misled conclusions, for example harhauttaviin väitteisiin (to misleading claims) or harhauttaviin uutisiin (to misleading news).

Related forms: The base adjective harhauttava has other inflected forms (harhauttavan, harhauttavat, harhauttavista, etc.) to agree with different nouns and cases. The concept is closely related to synonyms like harhaanjohtava and petollinen, though harhauttava specifically emphasizes inducing incorrect beliefs through misleading features.

See also: Finnish grammar, illative case, adjective declension, harhauttava.