naisista

Naisista is the elative plural form of the Finnish noun nainen (woman). In Finnish grammar, elative expresses movement from or reference to something, and in plural it is formed by adding the suffix -ista/-stä to the plural nominative. Therefore, naisista literally means “from/about the women,” depending on the verb or preposition it accompanies.

Morphology and usage. The base form for the plural nominative is naiset (the women). By adding the elative plural suffix -ista, the word becomes naisista. This form is used with verbs and prepositions that govern the elative case, such as puhua (to talk about) or keskustella (to discuss) in contexts involving women. Finnish does not rely on articles, so naisista often translates as “about women” or “from the women,” with the exact meaning determined by the sentence.

Examples:

- Puhuin naisista. (I talked about women.)

- Keskustelu naisista ja heidän arjestaan jatkui. (The discussion about the women and their everyday life continued.)

Notes. Naisista is a grammatical inflected form, not a separate lexical item; its meaning is derived from the case it expresses and the surrounding context. In translation, the sense of “about” or “from” is determined by the governing verb or preposition.

See also. Finnish grammar, elative case, plural forms.