toimivan

Toimivan is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective toimiva, meaning functional, operational, or working. It is used to describe a noun in contexts where the noun is definite or otherwise requires a genitive modifier. For example, toimivan laitteen means “of a functioning device,” and toimivan järjestelmän osat means “parts of a working system.” The word itself is not a separate lexeme beyond this grammatical form of toimiva; it appears whenever the adjective needs to agree with a noun in the genitive case.

The base adjective toimiva derives from the verb toimia, “to function” or “to operate.” As an attributive adjective, toimiva agrees with the noun in number and case. The nominative singular form is toimiva; the genitive singular, which yields toimivan, is used when describing a noun in the genitive or in certain fixed constructions. Partitive singular is toimivaa, and plural forms for the adjective occur as toimivat in the nominative, with corresponding inflections through the other cases.

In practical use, toimivan is common in technical writing, product descriptions, maintenance notes, and quality assessments to indicate that a device, software, or system is in working order. It competes with other Finnish adjectives and with nominal phrases such as toimiva ratkaisu (“a functional solution”) or toimiva laitteisto (“functional hardware”). The term emphasizes operability and reliability rather than mere presence of components. See also related forms and verbs, including toimia and toiminta, which provide the core semantic field of functioning and operation.