väärän

Väärän is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective väärä, meaning "wrong" or "false." It is used when the adjective modifies a noun that is in the genitive case, for example väärän kuvan (the wrong image) or väärän todistuksen (the false testimony).

In Finnish, adjectives decline to reflect the case and number of the nouns they describe. The genitive singular ending is typically -n, yielding väärän as the form that accompanies a genitive noun. The base form of the adjective is väärä, and väärän appears specifically in contexts where the noun is in genitive, or when the adjective itself is part of a larger genitive construction.

Common uses of väärän include describing incorrectness, deception, or misattribution. It appears in everyday language as well as formal writing, including legal or journalistic prose. Examples include väärän tiedon levittäminen (the dissemination of false information) and väärän väitteen esittäminen (presenting the erroneous claim). The word helps express quality or attribute without naming the noun directly, by linking it to a following genitive noun.

Etymology traces väärä to native Finnish roots, with cognates across Finnic languages. The form väärän is created through standard Finnish adjective inflection to agree with the genitive case of the noun it modifies.

See also: väärä (false/wrong), vääryys (wrongdoing/ injustice), false information, false testimony.