Ilmestyessä

Ilmestyessä is a Finnish adverbial participle form derived from the verb ilmestyä, meaning “to appear” or “to manifest.” The form ilmestyessä carries a temporal sense, functioning to describe an action that occurs at the moment something else appears or comes into view. In practice, it translates roughly to “as it appears,” “upon appearing,” or “when it appears” in English.

Grammatically, ilmestyessä is a non-finite verb form used to introduce a subordinate, time-related clause. It is formed from the present stem of ilmestyä with the suffix -essä, which signals the present adverbial participle and simultaneous action. This participle does not act as a separate subject; it relates to the subject of the main clause and contributes a temporal nuance to the sentence.

Usage and registers vary. The form is more common in literary, descriptive, or religious texts than in everyday speech. It is frequently encountered in discussions of apparitions, visions, or phenomena that are described as appearing or manifesting themselves, and it can appear in historical, mythological, or epic narratives to set the timing of events around a noticeable appearance.

Related terms include the noun ilmestyminen (the appearance or manifestation) and the noun ilmestys (an apparition or manifestation). While related in meaning, these forms serve different grammatical functions: ilmestyessä is a present adverbial participle, ilmestyminen is a noun referring to the act or process of appearing, and ilmestys denotes a specific appearance or manifestation.

In sum, ilmestyessä is a specialized Finnish non-finite form used to express timing in relation to an appearance, most often found in more elevated or literary contexts.