määrittelimme

määrittelimme is a Finnish verb form derived from the verb määrittää, which means "to determine, define, set limits, or specify." The word itself is the first‑person plural past tense: "we defined" or "we determined." It is used in contexts where a group has set boundaries, clarified standards, or made a formal statement about something. For example, a committee might say, "me määrittelimme uusia sääntöjä," meaning "we defined new rules."

The root määrittää comes from the Proto‑Finnic "*mäkkti-", linked to the concept of making a choice or finalizing an arrangement. The suffix for the participial form (‑ellä) turns the verb into an adjective‑like form, so the word communicates that the action was completed by the speakers. In Finnish, this past tense form follows standard conjugation rules for first‑person plural: base "määrit-" plus the end‑ing "-t" and the past suffix "-en," producing "määrittel-".

Grammatically, määrittelimme is inflected for person, number, tense, and aspect. It is distinct from the infinitive määrittää and the present tense määrittelemme ("we are defining"). In written Finnish, it typically appears in formal or academic discourse, legal documents, and journalistic contexts where clarity about the process of definition is required.

Because Finnish is a highly agglutinative language, the meaning of määrittelimme can shift slightly depending on context: it can signal a deliberate delimitation of a concept, a formal recording, or even the physical act of drawing a line. The word remains a core part of everyday Finnish, exemplifying how the language constructs precise actions with compact morphology.