tunnustavatele

Tunnustavatele is a term that appears in discussions of Finnish morphology but is not a standard or commonly attested word in contemporary Finnish dictionaries. In linguistic analyses it is sometimes described as a hypothetical allative plural form derived from the present participle tunnustava, meaning roughly “to the confessing ones” or “for the confessors.” Because Finnish has no true dative, the allative case marker -lle is used for recipient or direction, and any plural interpretation would involve a plural referent such as tunne-s or noun equivalents, depending on context. In standard usage, speakers would typically substitute more common expressions such as tunnustajille or tunnustaville, depending on exact meaning and syntactic role.

Etymology and morphology

The base form tunnustava comes from the verb tunnustaa, meaning to acknowledge or confess, used here in its present active participle form. The allative suffix -lle marks direction toward or for the recipient. In theory, combining a plural referent with the allative would yield forms that are interpreted as “to the confessing ones” or “for the confessors,” though such forms are not routine in Finnish and are rarely if ever found in everyday language. Real-world examples would more likely use tunnustajille (to the confessors) or a closely related plural form.

Usage

Because tunnustavatele is not a standard form, its practical use is limited to linguistic discussion, theoretical morphology, or as a note on how certain participial bases could be inflected for allative plural in hypothetical or dialectal contexts. In ordinary Finnish, speakers would opt for established constructions.

See also

Finnish grammar, allative case, participles, tunnustaja, tunnustus

References

Finnish grammar resources on participles and case endings; discussions of allative usage in noun phrases.