värillisellä

Värillisellä is the adessive singular form of the Finnish adjective värillinen, meaning colored or multicolored. It is used to describe a noun that is in the adessive case, typically to indicate location or means. For example, värillisellä paperilla means on colored paper, and värillisellä kynällä means with a colored pen.

Etymology and morphology: värillinen derives from the noun väri, meaning color, with the adjectival suffix -llinen, which yields “having color” or “colored.” When the head noun is in the adessive, the adjective also takes the adessive form, yielding värillisellä to match the noun’s case and number. Thus the form is an inflected variant of värillinen, not a separate lexical item.

Usage notes: värillisellä is used whenever the modified noun is accompanied by the adessive case and the speaker wants to specify color as a characteristic in that spatial or instrumental sense. It often appears in phrases describing materials, surfaces, or instruments used in a context involving color. It contrasts with värillinen in attributive position (e.g., värillinen kartta = a colored map) and with other case forms such as värillisen (genitive) or värillisen kartan.

Examples:

- Taustapaperi on värillisellä paperilla. (The backing paper is on colored paper.)

- Hän kirjoitti värillisellä kynällä. (He/she wrote with a colored pen.)

- Kartta näytti värillisellä kartalla eri alueet. (On a colored map you could see the different areas.)

See also: väri, värillinen, Finnish adjective inflection, adessive case.