kattojen

Kattojen is the genitive plural form of katto, the Finnish noun meaning roof. It is used to indicate possession or a relationship between roofs and another noun, for example: kattojen kunto (the condition of the roofs) or kaupungin kattojen maisema (the view of the city’s roofs).

Katto is a native Finnish word. The noun follows the common Finnish pattern for nouns with plural genitive forms: singular nominative katto; singular genitive katon; plural nominative katot; plural genitive kattojen. Other related forms include kattoja for the partitive plural. In compound and attributive use, kattojen functions as a possessive modifier.

Etymology: Katto has a long history in Finnish and belongs to the Finnic core lexicon. It has cognates in related languages, such as Estonian katus (roof), reflecting a shared Proto-Finnic origin. The genitive plural ending -en, realized orthographically as -tojen in this word, is a standard pattern in Finnish noun inflection.

Usage notes: Kattojen is common in everyday Finnish as well as in technical or descriptive writing when referring to the roofs collectively or to the features of roofs belonging to something. It should be distinguished from kattoja, the partitive plural meaning “roofs” as objects, and from other case forms such as kattojen in different syntactic contexts.

See also: katto (roof) and Finnish grammar.