lentävä

Lentävä is a Finnish adjective and present participle meaning “flying” or “the one that flies.” It is derived from the verb lentää, “to fly,” with the participle suffix -vä, which yields a form that can function both as an adjective and as a noun in some contexts. As an adjective, lentävä describes things capable of flight or moving through the air, such as lentävä kone (a flying machine) or lentävä lintu (a flying bird).

In standard Finnish grammar, lentävä agrees with the noun it modifies in number and case, so you can have lentävä auto (a flying car) or lentävää autoa (of a flying car) in inflected phrases. The word is most commonly used in descriptive, scientific, or literary contexts. It is less common as a standalone noun; for people, the terms lentäjä (pilot) or lennontekijä or related occupational words are typically used instead.

Usage notes: lentävä often appears in compound or descriptive phrases rather than as a fixed noun. In everyday language, Finnish tends to prefer precise terms for types of flight or flight-related roles, while lentävä can convey a general sense of airiness, motion, or capability to fly in more creative or speculative writing.

Related linguistic forms include lentää (to fly) and lentävä, as well as the noun forms and compounds that arise from them in Finnish vocabulary. The word is characteristic of Finnish morphology, where participial forms commonly serve as adjectives to describe attributes such as mobility, action, or capability.