laadollisen

Laadollisen is a grammatical form in Finnish. It is the genitive singular form of the adjective laadollinen, a term used to describe qualities or properties related to quality. In standard Finnish, the more common adjective for “qualitative” is laadullinen, while laadollisen can appear as a stylistic variant or in older texts and certain dialectal uses. The form adheres to the general pattern of Finnish adjectives, changing to agree with the noun it modifies and taking the genitive ending when the noun is in the genitive.

In practical use, laadollisen typically appears in noun phrases that refer to qualitative aspects or approaches. For example, phrases equivalent to “the qualitative approach” or “the qualitative data” may surface as laadollisen lähestymistavan or laadollisen datan as part of a larger sentence. The distinction between laadollinen (qualitative) and laadullinen (also qualitative) is subtle and mainly a matter of register, with laadullinen being the standard form in contemporary academic Finnish.

Etymology and relation to other terms: laadollinen is formed from laatu (quality) with the suffix -llinen, similar to other Finnish adjectives that signal a relation to a property. Because Finnish adjectives decline to reflect case and number, laadollisen appears specifically in the genitive singular when used before a genitive noun.

See also: laatu, laadullinen, määrällinen, kvalitatiivinen.