menneitä

Menneitä is a Finnish word used to refer to things from the past. It typically appears as the partitive plural form of the adjective mennnyt and is common in expressions such as menneitä vuosia, menneitä aikoja, and menneitä tapahtumia. In neutral prose, menneitä signals the content or scope of what is being discussed—past years, bygone eras, or historical events—without naming them explicitly.

Etymology and form: The form menneitä derives from the past participle mennnyt, meaning "gone," and is inflected to the plural partitive to fit with a following noun. This construction is a standard feature of Finnish grammar, allowing a compact way to refer to a range of bygone things.

Usage and nuance: Menneitä is frequent in historical writing, journalism, and literature, where the past is being recalled or contextualized. The tone can be neutral or nostalgic depending on context. It is generally used for inanimate things or abstract ideas (years, times, events) and not typically for people; for people one would use other phrases such as menneet ihmiset or aikaisemmat henkilöt.

See also: menneisyys, which means “the past,” and related terms like historia and aikakausi, which describe eras and historical periods.