määritettavan

Määritettavan is a Finnish participial form derived from the verb määritellä, meaning to define. It is the genitive singular form of the present passive participle määritettävä, which describes something that is to be defined or that must be defined. In practice, määritettavan functions as an adjective within noun phrases, indicating prospective or required-definition status rather than something already defined.

In usage, määritettavan appears mainly in formal, technical, or academic Finnish. It is commonly attached to a noun in the genitive to form phrases such as määritettavan kohteen rajat (the boundaries of the object to be defined) or määritettavan prosessin vaiheet (the stages of the process to be defined). The construction emphasizes that the defined item is not yet fixed but will be determined in a later step. It is not typical in everyday conversation except within specialized texts.

A related form is the base adjective määritettävä, meaning definable or to-be-defined, which can occur without the genitive tail. The key distinction is that määritettavan marks the genitive singular of the participle, used to modify another noun, whereas määritettävä generally describes a property of a noun on its own. This makes määritettavan common in definitions, specifications, and technical descriptions where precise specification is pending or required.