parillisissa

Parillisissa is a Finnish grammatical form used to describe plural nouns in the inessive case with the meaning “in the even ones” or “in even numbers.” It is the plural inessive form of the adjective parillinen, which means even or even-numbered. The form parillisissa appears when the noun it modifies is plural and located in the inessive case, as in parillisissa numeroissa (“in even numbers”) or parillisissa ryhmissä (“in even-numbered groups”).

Formation and grammar

Parillisissa follows the standard Finnish pattern for adjective agreement. The base adjective parillinen takes the -issa/-issä ending to mark plural inessive. For singular inessive you would use parillisessa, whereas for plural inessive you use parillisissa. Other case forms follow the regular Finn­ish adjective declension: parillinen (base), parillisen (partitive), parilliseen (illative), parillisissa (inessive plural), parillisiin (illative plural), and so on. The exact form depends on number (singular vs. plural) and the grammatical case of the noun it modifies.

Usage

Parillisissa is most common in mathematical, statistical, or formal writing where one speaks about elements that belong to the set of even numbers or to other evenly indexed groups. In everyday language, speakers often prefer explicit phrases like parillisissa numeroissa or parillisissa ryhmissä, or simply use the noun phrase parilliset luvut (“even numbers”) without relying on parillisissa by itself.

Examples

- Parillisissa numeroissa luvut 2, 4 ja 6 ovat tyypillisiä esimerkkejä. (In even numbers, the numbers 2, 4, and 6 are typical examples.)

- Parillisissa ryhmissä osallistujat jaetaan pareittain. (In even-numbered groups, participants are divided in pairs.)

See also

parillinen, Finnish adjective declension, Finnish inessive case.