Hikoillessa

Hikoillessa is a Finnish grammatical form derived from the verb hikoilla, meaning to sweat. It is the present active participle in the -essa/-ässä suffix pattern and expresses that sweating is occurring simultaneously with another action. In English, it roughly corresponds to “while sweating” or “sweating.”

Formation and usage

The word is created by adding the participial suffix -essa to the stem hiko- and can function adverbially to indicate concurrent action. In Finnish, such participles are commonly used in descriptive or narrative prose to provide a concise way to relate two events happening at the same time. Hikoillessa may appear in dependent clauses or as part of a larger sentence structure, often with the subject understood from the context.

Grammatical notes

Finnish participles can serve multiple syntactic roles, including as adverbial modifiers or adjectives. Hikoillessa specifically marks ongoing sweating during another action. It is most commonly found in written or formal registers and in descriptive passages. The form is closely related to the noun hikoilu (sweating) and to verbs describing physical exertion.

Examples

- Hikoillessa hän pysähtyi hetkeksi. (While sweating, he paused for a moment.)

- Hikoillessa hän jatkoi eteenpäin. (While sweating, he continued on.)

See also

- Hikoilla (to sweat)

- Hikoilu (sweating)

Hikoillessa serves as a clear example of how Finnish uses participial forms to express simultaneous actions in a compact, stylistic way.