potentiaalisen

Potentiaalisen is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective potentiaalinen, which means “potential” or “potential-related.” In Finnish, adjectives inflect to agree with the noun they modify in case and number, so potentiaalinen has various endings. Potentiaalisen appears when the noun it modifies is in the genitive singular, or in phrases where the noun is in the genitive.

The form functions similarly to the English construct “of potential” or “potential-” in phrases that express possession, attribution, or a close relationship between two nouns. For example, in Finnish you can say potentiaalisen vaikutuksen mittaaminen, meaning “the measurement of the potential effect,” where potentiaalisen modifies vaikutus in its genitive form. Another common usage is potentiaalisen energian, meaning “of potential energy,” with energia in the genitive singular.

In practice, potentiaalisen appears across fields such as science, engineering, and economics, wherever a modifier refers to something related to potential or possibility. While potentiaalinen is most often seen before a noun in the nominative form (potentiaalinen ratkaisu = a potential solution), potentiaalisen is specifically chosen when the noun is governed by a case requiring genitive endings.

Summary: potentiaalisen is a grammatical inflection of a Finnish adjective meaning “potential,” used to link to a genitive noun to express “of the potential” or a related attribution. Its use is primarily determined by Finnish noun-case agreement, not by any separate semantic shift.