kentillä

Kentillä is a Finnish noun form meaning “on the fields.” It is the inessive plural form of kenttä, a word whose core sense is field, court, or playing surface. The basic sense of kenttä covers literal fields in agriculture or open spaces as well as surfaces used for a particular activity, such as sports or gatherings. In everyday language, kenttä appears in many compound terms, for example urheilukenttä (sports field), jääkenttä (ice rink), and tiedekenttä (field of science). The plural form kentillä is used to indicate location on multiple fields: on the fields.

In practice, kentillä marks place or location. Examples include: Pelaajat ovat kentillä (The players are on the fields). Kilpailut pidetään useilla kentillä (Competitions are held on several fields). The precision of the form makes it common in sentences referencing outdoor sports, agricultural areas, or multiple venues.

Etymology and related terms: kenttä is a native Finnish word with historical linguistic connections to Swedish; a common cognate is Swedish fält meaning field. Because of its broad sense, kenttä forms appear in many compound nouns to denote a physical space or an abstract domain, such as tiedekenttä (field of science) or sähkökenttä (electric field). In physics and mathematics, kenttä is also used to denote a field concept, though the locative form kentillä is typically reserved for tangible, physical locations.

See also: kenttä, jäähockeykenttä, jalkapallokenttä, urheilukenttä.