vaateita

Vaateita is a Finnish word that refers to clothing items in an indefinite quantity. In standard Finnish the corresponding partitive plural form is vaatteita, used when talking about some clothes rather than a specific set. The noun vaate itself means a garment or item of clothing. Other common forms of vaate include vaatteet (nominative plural), vaatteiden (genitive plural), and vaatteen (genitive singular), with vaatetta as the partitive singular.

In general use, vaateita is not treated as a separate lexical item from vaatteita in contemporary standard Finnish. The form vaateita appears in some texts or informal contexts as a spelling variant or error, but vaatteita is the normative spelling for the partitive plural. The word encompasses a wide range of clothing items, such as shirts, pants, dresses, jackets, underwear, and accessories worn as apparel. It is a common term in everyday speech, retail language, fashion discussions, and wardrobe-related contexts.

Examples in standard form include: Minulla on vaatteita. I have clothes; Ostin vaatteita kirpputorilta. I bought clothes from a thrift store; Hän toi mukanaan paljon vaatteita. She brought a lot of clothes. The term can also appear in compound expressions such as vaatekappale (garment) or vaatekaappi (wardrobe), which help specify the type of clothing being referred to.

Etymology traces vaate to a native Finnic root for clothing, with inflectional endings forming the various cases and number forms. See also vaatteet, vaatekauppa, and vaatekappale.