vaativa

Vaativa is a Finnish adjective meaning demanding, exacting, or requiring a high degree of effort, skill, or resources. It is used to describe tasks, situations, or conditions that impose substantial requirements on people, organizations, or systems. A vaativa context can involve intellectual challenges, physical effort, or complex processes, and the term is common in discussions of education, employment, housing, and project planning.

Etymology and form: Vaativa derives from the verb vaatia, to require or demand. The suffix -va/-vä forms adjectives meaning “requiring” or “characterized by the described quality.” In sentences, it typically precedes the noun it describes, as in vaativa tehtävä (a demanding task). Like other Finnish adjectives, vaativa inflects to agree with the noun in number and case.

Usage and nuance: In neutral, technical language, vaativa states objective difficulty. In everyday speech, it can carry a evaluative nuance, suggesting that a task is burdensome or onerous beyond a certain expectation. The term is closely related to haastava (challenging), while vaativuus refers to the quality of being demanding and vaatimukset to the requirements or prerequisites.

See also: Finnish language; challenging tasks; job descriptions; education and training contexts.