nähtävään

Nähtävään is a Finnish inflected form of the adjective nähtävä, which means “visible” or “to be seen.” As a Finnish adjective, nähtävä declines to agree with a noun in number and case, and nähtävään is the illative singular form used when the noun it modifies is in the illative case (often translated as “into a place that is to be seen” or more generally “to a place that is noticeable”). In everyday language, researchers and writers may prefer the base form nähtävä when describing a general quality, while nähtävään appears in sentences that require a directional or locational illative.

Etymology and morphology: nähtävä is derived from the verb nähdä, meaning “to see.” The -vä/-vä suffix turns the verb stem into an attributive adjective indicating something that can or should be seen. The illative ending -ään (as in nähtävään) marks direction toward or into a noun in illative, aligning the adjective with the noun’s case.

Usage: Nähtävä describes the quality of being visible or capable of being seen. It is used to modify nouns in contexts where the property of visibility is relevant, particularly in descriptive or technical prose. The related noun näytettävyys or the more common nähtävyys means “sight, attraction, or point of interest” and is often used to refer to places or items worth seeing. While nähtävään is correct in grammatically appropriate illative contexts, everyday speech frequently relies on nähtävä or other constructions depending on style.

Related terms: nähdä, nähtävä, näytettävä, nähtävyys, nähtävyys. See also Finnish grammar on adjectives and illative case, and the linguistic distinction between qualities described by nähtävä and the substantive notion of a sight or attraction.