Finnish translation of "pattern"

[krtk]

I'd like to know how to naturally translate the English word "pattern" into Finnish, specifically the meaning in this kind of sentence:

I noticed a pattern in the clothes he wore to work.
It's unclear whether the pattern in the robberies was a coincidence.
I like this specific pattern that I hear in the composer's work.

Dictionaries give translations of malli and kaava, but malli would be more like "model", while I've only seen kaava used this way in machine translated texts from English, and that use of the word doesn't appear in the authoritative Kielitoimiston sanakirja.

[tiia]

Sometimes it can help to consider other synonyms in English that convey the same meaning. Translating word by word from English is often not the best idea in case of Finnish.

I tested what deepl would suggest for this and it came up with the word kuvio, which could fit also according to Kielitoimiston sanakirja.
Otherwise I thought whether something in the direction of systematic could also work out.

But I would prefer a native speaker to confirm this.

[Henkkles]

There's a word "lainalaisuus" (lain*alaisuus, not laina*laisuus as I thought as a kid hehe) which works in some contexts but often I would say "kuvio" although in a musical context I've also said "patterni" for lack of a better word.

[Erisnimi]

My take as a native Finnish speaker:

"I noticed a pattern in the clothes he wore to work."

A pattern in a piece of clothing would be "kuvio" but you are talking about a common theme in his clothing. Thence "kaava".

"Huomasin hänen työpukeutumisensa noudattavan tiettyä kaavaa."

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"It's unclear whether the pattern in the robberies was a coincidence."

There are several ways of putting this across. In the name of naturalness, I'd go for "samankaltaisuus", literally "similarity". "Kaava" is also a possibility.

"Ei ole selvää, oliko ryöstöjen samankaltaisuus sattumaa."

"Ei ole selvää, oliko ryöstöissä havaittu kaava sattumaa." [...the pattern that was noticed pertaining to the robberies..."

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"I like this specific pattern that I hear in the composer's work."

"Pidän tästä tietystä kuviosta, jonka kuulen säveltäjän teoksessa."

Are you talking about one piece in particular ("teoksessa") or his oeuvre more generally? If latter, I'd use "töissä" [literally: in the works].

Anyway, translated this way, it (kuvio) would refer to a specific repeating motive, the way Bach would insert the B-A-C-H figure in his works. If you are talking about patterns or themes more generally, there are again many ways to express it - for example "muotokielestä" instead of "kuviosta". "Muotokieli" is something like style, or artistic or thematic vocabulary.

You'll notice that even when translating the sentences, I've not done them word for word, so there's a lot to consider when making a translation sound natural.