onttien

Onttien is a Finnish grammatical form rather than a standalone concept. It is the genitive plural of the noun ontti, which means a pit, hollow, cavity, or excavation. In practice, onttien is used to indicate possession or association with multiple pits or hollows.

In technical and descriptive Finnish, onttien appears in phrases that refer to more than one pit. For example, onttien reunat means the edges or rims of the pits, and onttien syvyydet means the depths of the pits. The form is common in fields such as geology, mining, archaeology, and geomorphology, where landscapes are described in terms of multiple pits, hollows, or excavations.

Usage and scope: ontti can denote natural hollows formed by erosion or man-made excavations such as mining pits or wells. The genitive plural onttien signals that several such features are being discussed. Because Finnish uses inflection rather than prepositions to indicate relationships, onttien typically pairs with a following noun in the nominative plural or other case forms, as in onttien reunat or onttien syvyydet.

Etymology and morphology: ontti is the base noun meaning pit or hollow, and the genitive plural is formed by adding the suffix -ien (onttien). The word is primarily found in written, technical, or descriptive contexts; it is less common in everyday speech, where speakers may refer to pits more simply as onttoja or by specific names.