iltoja

Iltoja is the partitive plural form of the Finnish noun ilta, which means evening. In everyday Finnish, iltoja is used when referring to an unspecified or non-counted amount of evenings, rather than a specific number.

Morphology and forms: The base noun is ilta. Its nominative plural is illat. The partitive forms are iltaa (singular) and iltoja (plural). Other related forms include illan (genitive singular) and iltojen (genitive plural). The stress pattern is on the first syllable: IL-ta, IL-to-ja.

Usage: Iltoja commonly appears with indefinite quantifiers or in contexts describing multiple evenings. Phrases such as useita iltoja ("several evenings") and joitakin iltoja ("some evenings") are typical. It is also used in compound or descriptive phrases like viikon iltoja ("week evenings") or kaupungin iltoja ("evenings in the city"), where the emphasis is on the time of day rather than a count.

Examples:

- Olemme viettäneet useita iltoja kaupungissa. (We have spent several evenings in the city.)

- Hän muistelee menneitä iltoja ystäviensä kanssa. (She recalls the evenings of the past with her friends.)

In Finnish prose and poetry, iltoja can convey atmosphere and time, often contributing to reflective or scenic descriptions. The term is primarily a natural, everyday word used across formal and informal contexts.

See also: ilta, illat, iltakausi (contextual uses referring to evening periods).