tarkoituksellisissa

Tarkoituksellisissa is a Finnish adjective form, specifically the inessive plural of tarkoituksellinen, meaning purposeful or intentional. It is used to describe actions, plans, or systems that are characterized by a clear aim or deliberate design, rather than by accident or chance.

Forming and usage: The base word tarkoituksellinen comes from tarkoitus (purpose, aim) with the adjectival suffix -llinen, yielding “purposeful” or “purpose-driven.” When the adjective modifies a plural noun in the inessive case, the ending becomes -issa/-issä, producing tarkoituksellisissa. Examples include tarkoituksellisissa suunnitelmissa (in purposeful plans) or tarkoituksellisissa toimenpiteissä (in purposeful measures).

Nuances: Tarkoituksellinen emphasizes alignment with a defined objective and deliberate planning. It can be contrasted with tahallinen, which also means deliberate or intentional but often emphasizes the agent’s conscious action, and with suunniteltu, which stresses that something has been planned. The exact nuance depends on context, but tarkoituksellisuus generally signals a purposeful, goal-oriented approach rather than mere happenstance.

Contexts: The term appears in discussions of business strategy, policy analysis, research methodologies, and organizational processes, where describing methods or outcomes as tarkoituksellisissa signals that they are guided by stated objectives and structured reasoning.

See also: tarkoitus, tarkoituksellinen, tahallinen, suunniteltu.