ystävällisen

Ystävällisen is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective ystävällinen, which means friendly or kind. The base adjective ystävällinen describes people, animals, organizations, or environments that show friendliness or amiability. Ystävällisen is not a separate lexical item beyond this inflected form; it appears wherever a noun is in the genitive case and the adjective precedes it, for example as ystävällisen ihmisen auttava käsi (“the helping hand of a friendly person”).

Etymology and formation: ystävällinen is formed from the noun ystävä (friend) with the common adjective suffix -llinen, which yields “having the quality of a friend” or “like a friend.” This construction is typical for Finnish adjectives that express a characteristic.

Morphology and usage: Finnish adjectives decline to agree with the noun in case and number. The genitive singular form is -isen, yielding ystävällisen before a genitive noun. Other forms include nominative singular ystävällinen, partitive singular ystävällistä, and plural forms such as ystävälliset (nominative plural) and ystävällisten (genitive plural). The word is commonly used to describe people (ystävällinen nainen – a kind woman), animals (ystävällisen koiran luona – at the friendly dog’s place), or entities (ystävällisen yrityksen palvelut – services of a friendly company). The adverbial form is ystävällisesti.

Related terms: ystävällisyys (friendliness), ystävällinen (the positive adjective), and ystävätallinen is not standard; synonyms include kiltti and ystävällinen in many contexts.

Notes: Ystävällisen is primarily a grammatical form; the intended meaning depends on the noun it modifies. The word carries a positive, courteous connotation common in everyday Finnish.