tänapäevaste

Tänapäevaste is the genitive plural form of the Estonian adjective tänapäevane, which means contemporary or present-day. In Estonian, adjectives agree with the noun they modify in number and case, so tänapäevaste is used with plural nouns in the genitive case. For example: tänapäevaste tehnoloogiate mõju translates to the impact of contemporary technologies.

Etymology and form: The base is tänapäev, literally “present day,” from which tänapäevane is formed with the adjective suffix -ane. The genitive plural ending -ste yields tänapäevaste, which is used when the accompanying noun is in the genitive plural (or related cases) in a sentence.

Usage and nuance: Tänapäevaste is typically used in formal writing, such as journalism, academia, or policy texts, to refer to aspects of the current era. It is appropriate when discussing a set of items or concepts in the present-day context, and it specifically marks the relationship as belonging to or characteristic of the present. If you want to refer to modern things in the nominative plural, you would use tänapäevased (e.g., tänapäevased tehnoloogiad).

Related terms: Tänapäev, tänapäeva (present-day), tänapäevane (contemporary), and kaasaegne are closely related and often interchangeable in everyday language, though they carry subtle stylistic or nuance differences in formal contexts.

See also: Estonian language morphology, Estonian adjectives, Contemporary terminology in Estonian.