tärkein

Tärkein is the superlative form of the Finnish adjective tärkeä, meaning “the most important.” It functions as an attributive or predicative adjective and agrees with the noun it modifies in number and case. When placed before a noun, it forms phrases such as tärkein asia (the most important thing) or tärkeimmät kysymykset (the most important questions). In predicative use, it can express priority or significance, for example Se on tärkein. More natural expressions often use the form tärkeintä, especially in constructions like “Tärkeintä on…”.

Morphology and usage in Finnish: kuten kaikki adjektiivit, tärkein declines to match case and number. Examples include nominative singular tärkein, genitive singular tärkeimmän, partitive singular tärkeintä; nominative plural tärkeimmät, genitive plural tärkeimpien, partitive plural tärkeimpiä. The word is commonly used in everyday language, journalism, and formal writing to emphasize priority, relevance, or urgency.

Etymology: tärkein is derived from tärkeä with the Finnish superlative suffix -in, a productive pattern for forming the highest degree of an adjective.

Notes: In standard prose, lowercase tärkein is used unless it appears as part of a title, heading, or a proper noun. Although it often conveys a value judgment, it is a neutral, descriptive form in grammatical contexts and does not carry intrinsic evaluative force beyond what the sentence provides.