kollektiivisen

Kollektiivisen is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective kollektiivinen, which means collective or pertaining to a group. In Finnish, adjectives decline to agree with the noun they modify in number, case, and definiteness, so kollektiivinen becomes kollektiivisen in the genitive singular. This form is used to express possession or attribution to a collective, for example, kollektiivisen päätöksen, meaning the collective’s decision.

Typical inflection of the adjective kollektiivinen includes nominative singular kollektiivinen, genitive singular kollektiivisen, partitive singular kollektiivista, and plural forms such as kollektiiviset (nominative) or kollektiivisten (genitive). The exact ending changes with the grammatical case and number of the noun it accompanies.

Etymology traces kollektiivinen to the noun kollektiivi, meaning a collective or group, which itself derives from a borrowing path through Nordic languages and ultimately from Latin collectio, via the general concept of collecting or gathering. The suffix -nen is a common Finnish derivational ending used to form adjectives from nouns.

Usage of kollektiivisen appears in political, organizational, and sociological contexts to describe actions, responsibilities, or properties originating from a group rather than from individuals. Common collocations include kollektiivinen vastuu (collective responsibility), kollektiivisen toiminnan (of collective action), and kollektiivisen muistin (collective memory). It can imply consensus or shared ownership, but does not automatically indicate uniformity within the group. In contrast, words like yhteisöllinen emphasize communal or societal aspects more broadly.

Overall, kollektiivisen functions as a precise grammatical form enabling Finnish speakers to attribute qualities, actions, or possessions to a collective in a grammatically correct way.