menneillä

Menneillä is a Finnish word used to refer to times that have already passed. It functions as an inflected form of the adjective related to the concept of the past, and it appears in phrases describing historical periods or bygone eras. The most common usage is in combination with a time noun in the adessive case, for example in expressions like menneillä vuosikymmenillä (in past decades), menneillä vuosisadoilla (in past centuries), or menneillä ajoilla (in former times). In these contexts, menneillä helps locate events or conditions within a historical timeframe and signals that the referenced period is no longer the present.

Usage and nuance

Menneillä is typically found in written Finnish, including news reporting, history writing, and literature, where a sense of contrast between past and present is relevant. It is often accompanied by a specific time noun (vuodet, vuosikymmenet, vuosisadat) to name the period. In everyday language, speakers may alternatively use phrases like menneinä aikoina or nykyisin/nykyään to emphasize present conditions or shifts, but menneillä remains common for emphasizing periods that have passed.

Etymology

The form derives from the concept of “gone” or “past,” linked to the Finnish verb mennä (to go) and the adjective mennyt, which conveys that something has already occurred. The adessive plural ending -illä signals the grammatical case used with the accompanying time noun.

See also

Menneisyys (the past, history), mennä (to go), menneinä aikoina.