pituisiin

Pituisiin is a Finnish inflected form of the adjective pituinen, meaning long or lengthy. It represents the illative plural, a case used to express movement toward or into something, with a plural referent. In practice, pituiseen is the singular illative form (to the long one), while pituisiin serves as the plural illative form (to the long ones).

Grammatically, pituinen is an -inen adjective. In the illative plural, the form shifts to accommodate both number (plural) and case (illative). The existence of pituisiin reflects Finnish nominal and verbal agreement rules, where adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in number and case. The appearance of pituisiin is most common in written Finnish, especially in older texts, poetry, or translations, and it is relatively rare in everyday speech.

Usage notes: Because Finnish features rich inflection, illative plural adjective forms like pituisiin are less frequent in colloquial usage. When speakers want to convey similar meaning in contemporary speech, they often opt for less marked constructions, such as using a plural noun in illative with an uninflected or differently inflected adjective, or rephrasing to avoid multiple inflectional layers.

Semantics: pituisiin denotes destination or direction toward things characterized by length, rather than changing the inherent property of length itself. It is used when referring to multiple long objects or concepts in a context that requires the illative plural.

See also: Finnish grammar, Illative case, Adjective declension, Finnish adjectives.