pitkissä

Pitkissä is the inessive plural form of the Finnish adjective pitkä, meaning long. It is used when the adjective modifies a plural noun in the inessive case, and thus translates roughly as “in the long ones” or, depending on the noun, “in long periods” or “in long places.”

Morphology and usage are straightforward in standard Finnish grammar. The base form is pitkä (singular), and when describing plural nouns in the inessive case, the adjective takes the form pitkissä. This appears before the noun it modifies, as in pitkissä ajanjaksoissa (in long periods) and pitkissä jonoissa (in long queues). The full construction consists of pitkissä followed by the corresponding inessive plural noun.

Typical contexts for pitkissä include formal or written language, where the speaker wants to emphasize duration or extent. It does not function independently as a noun; it always accompanies a plural noun in the same case. Examples show its usefulness in describing time spans, spatial arrangements, or sequences that are notably extended.

Notes on nuance and usage: pitkissä tends to appear in descriptions or analyses that compare lengths or durations, especially in historical, sociological, or logistical texts. In everyday speech, speakers often simplify or rephrase (for example by using shorter phrases with singular or different cases), so pitkissä is more common in written Finnish.

See also: Finnish grammar, adjectives, inessive case, plural agreement.