välttelevien

Välttelevien is a Finnish grammatical form that functions primarily as a genitive plural of the adjective välttelevä, meaning "evasive" or "avoiding." In practice, välttelevien is used to indicate possession or association by those who avoid something, and it is typically part of a larger noun phrase rather than a standalone noun.

In Finnish, the form arises when an adjective is used attributively to describe a group and the dependent noun is in the genitive plural. An example would be a phrase like välttelevien velvollisuuksien hoitaminen, meaning “fulfilling the obligations of those who avoid (them).” The core idea conveyed is a group characterized by avoidance, rather than a distinct social category or named group.

Usage and nuance: välttelevien is more common in written or descriptive Finnish and linguistic analyses than in everyday speech. It functions as a modifier that broadens or specifies the subject as one composed of people who engage in avoidance, rather than naming the people themselves. Because Finnish relies on context and case endings to convey meaning, välttelevien often appears within a larger sentence where the exact referent is clarified by the accompanying noun in genitive.

Relation to other forms: the base adjective välttelevä has other inflected forms (e.g., välttelevä, välttelevää, välttelevien) depending on the grammatical role. The usage of välttelevien as a nominal-like form illustrates how Finnish employs adjectives in noun-like positions to describe groups or categories without introducing a separate noun for the group.

See also: Finnish grammar, adjective usage as nouns, genitive case in Finnish.