määrättyä

Määrättyä is a Finnish word that functions as a past passive participle of the verb määrätä, meaning to determine, designate, or prescribe. In contemporary Finnish it is commonly used as an adjective or a predicative modifier, indicating that something has been fixed, allocated, or set by an authority or process. The form reflects Finnish participial morphology and can describe nouns in various contexts, particularly in administrative, legal, or formal language.

Morphology and usage

As an adjective, määrättyä agrees with a singular noun in partitive case, for example in phrases like määrättyä aikaa (a specified amount of time). The plural form in partitive is määrättyjä, as in määrättyjä ehtoja (the specified terms). The base form määrätä is highly productive in legal and bureaucratic diction, so määrättyä appears frequently in official texts, contracts, regulations, and guidelines. The construction can also appear in predicative position, for instance: Tämä vastaus on määrätty. In everyday speech, speakers may prefer more common expressions, but määrättyä remains standard in formal contexts.

Examples

- Määrättyä aikaa varten varataan tilaa. (Space is reserved for the allotted time.)

- Yritys on sopinut määrätyt ehdot. (The company has agreed to the stipulated terms.)

- Viestissä todetaan, että toimenpiteet ovat määrättyjä. (The message states that the measures are designated.)

Etymology and related forms

Määrättyä derives from määrätä, with the participial suffix -tty, producing the past passive participle määrätty. The adjective can combine with nouns in different cases; its related form määrättyjä appears in plural. Related concepts in Finnish include other participial adjectives formed from verbs, which share similar usage patterns in formal registers.

See also

Finnish grammar – participles; Finnish legal and administrative language.