märkiä

Märkia is not a standalone lexical item in Finnish; it is the plural partitive form of the adjective märkä, meaning wet. It appears in noun phrases such as märkiä esineitä, which translates to “wet objects.”

In Finnish, adjectives decline to agree with the nouns they modify in number and case. When a plural noun is in the partitive case, the corresponding form of märkä is märkiä. The partitive serves several functions, including indicating non-totality, indefiniteness, or ongoingness of an action with respect to the modified noun. Consequently, märkiä is typically encountered as part of a larger expression rather than as an independent word.

Etymology traces märkä to the Proto-Finnic root *märkä, related to cognates in other Finnic languages such as Estonian märg (“wet”). The form märkiä reflects regular Finnish inflection patterns for adjectives in plural partitive contexts.

Usage notes: märkiä functions strictly as a grammatical inflection and does not carry a separate lexical meaning beyond “wet” when attached to a plural noun. It is most common in descriptive phrases dealing with moisture, rain, damp environments, or objects affected by wetness. In standard prose, you will encounter märkiä within the structure märkiä esineitä or similar phrases rather than as a stand-alone term. If encountered as a capitalized name, it would typically denote a fictional place, brand, or proper noun outside ordinary Finnish grammar.

See also Finnish grammar, adjectives, partitive case.