ruskeista

Ruskeista is a Finnish grammatical form of the adjective ruskea, meaning brown. It is the elative plural form, used when the related noun is in the elative case (from, out of, or concerning brown items) and both the adjective and noun are plural. In practice, ruskeista appears in phrases where multiple brown objects are described or referenced as the source or material.

As a form, ruskeista is one of several inflected endings that Finnish adjectives take to agree with a noun in case and number. The base form ruskea combines with a plural noun in various cases to produce different endings; ruskeat, ruskeita, and ruskeista are examples for nominative plural, partitive plural, and elative plural, respectively. The choice among these endings depends on the role of the noun in the sentence.

Common usage contexts include describing materials, colors, or sources of objects. For example, phrases such as "Vaatteet valmistettiin ruskeista kankaista" (The clothes were made from brown fabrics) or "Kengät ovat tehty ruskeista nahkalahoista" illustrate ruskeista modifying a plural noun in the elative case.

Notes for learners: ruskeista cannot stand alone as a simple noun. It functions as a modifying form that requires a plural noun in the corresponding elative case. It is closely related to other color-related adjective forms, such as ruskeat (nominative plural) and ruskeita (partitive plural), each serving different syntactic roles in a sentence.