passiivista

Passiivista is the partitive singular form of the Finnish adjective passiivinen, meaning “passive.” In Finnish, adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in case and number, and when the noun is in the partitive case (or in negated or indefinite constructions), the adjective takes the partitive form. Therefore passiivista appears in phrases that describe something as passive, such as passiivista rakennetta, passiivista ääntä, or passiivista kieltä.

In linguistic and general usage, passiivinen (the passive) is a grammatical voice used to indicate that the action is performed on the subject or that the agent is unknown or unimportant. Finnish expresses the passive in several forms across tenses, with the verb inflecting to reflect time and aspect rather than a dedicated passive word. The term passiivinen is common in grammar, syntax discussions, and language descriptions.

Passiivista is thus most often encountered in noun phrases describing passive phenomena or constructions, especially when the noun is in partitive case or when the statement is indefinite or negated. For example, lauseen passiivista rakennetta refers to a passive structure within a sentence, passiivista kieltä can denote passive language in a context discussing usage, and passiivista ääntä may describe a passive tone or style.

See also: passiivi (the passive voice), passiivinen (the adjective meaning passive), Finnish grammar.