nähtav

Nähtav is a Finnish adjective that conveys the sense of being visible or able to be seen. In contemporary standard Finnish, the more common form is nähtävä, while nähtav is rarely used and can appear mainly as a nonstandard variant or in linguistic discussions and older texts. The word originates from the verb nähdä, “to see,” and reflects a participial formation that denotes perceptibility or observability.

In practical use, speakers typically prefer nähtävä (or more common synonyms such as havaittava) to express visibility or observability. The noun form related to the concept is näytettävyys or visibility (nähdy: the act of being seen), with näyttevyys being used in some contexts to discuss how noticeable or detectable something is. In everyday language, mais terms like näkyvä (visible) or ilmeinen (apparent) may also convey related meanings, depending on nuance.

Nähtav as a lemma is not standard in modern Finnish dictionaries, but its presence can be noted in linguistic analyses of Finnish participial suffixes, where it serves to illustrate how -tav- forms adjectives from verbs. The typical and recommended forms for most speakers and writers when referring to visibility or detectability are nähtävä and havaittava, with näköisyys- or näkyvyys-based nouns used for related concepts like visibility and observability.

See also: Finnish participial adjectives, näytettävyys, havaittava, näkyvä, näköisyys. Notes on Finnish orthography and morphology explain the relationship between verbs of perception and their adjectival derivatives, including how different suffixes (such as -va/-vä and -ttava) create meanings related to ability to be perceived.