tärkeä

Tärkeä is a native Finnish adjective meaning important, significant, or essential. It is used to describe things with high importance or relevance and can refer to people, events, decisions, objects, or ideas, as in tärkeä kysymys ("an important question"), tärkeä päätös ("an important decision"), or tärkeä rooli ("an important role").

Grammatically, tärkeä is an attributive adjective that agrees with the noun in number and case. The basic form is tärkeä; the comparative form is tärkeämpi and the superlative form is tärkein. For example: Tämä on tärkeä päätös. Tämä on tärkeämpi päätös kuin tuo. Se on tärkein kysymys.

Nuance and synonyms: tärkeä is broad and general, and in contexts requiring greater emphasis on significance, words like merkittävä (significant), olennainen (essential), or keskeinen (central) may be used. Välttämätön expresses necessity rather than importance. In Finnish, the choice among these terms depends on what exactly is being emphasized—importance in a broad sense, essential nature, central role, or required necessity.