määriteltävän

Määriteltävän is a Finnish grammatical form derived from the verb määritellä, meaning to define or specify. It is the genitive singular form of the passive present participle määriteltävä, which translates roughly as “to be defined” or “that is to be defined.” In Finnish, the passive present participle often functions as an adjective in noun phrases, and its endings decline like other adjectives to reflect case and number.

Usage and function

The form määriteltävän is used when a participial modifier appears in a genitive noun phrase. For example, in the phrase määriteltävän työn laajuus, meaning “the scope of the work to be defined,” määriteltävän modifies työn (the work) in the genitive. This construction tends to occur in formal, technical, or administrative Finnish, where precise specification or definitions are being discussed.

Relation to other forms

Määriteltävä itself appears as the base nominative form of the participle, meaning “to be defined.” The other case forms of the participle follow regular Finnish inflection, such as määriteltävää (partitive) or other genitive and adnominal endings. The word is related semantically to määritelmä (definition) and määrittely (the act or process of defining), but funger primarily as a participial modifier rather than a standalone noun.

Summary

Määriteltävän is a specialized genitive singular form of the passive present participle from määritellä. It signals that the described noun is “to be defined” and is used to create precise, formal noun phrases in Finnish.