Keittämällä

Keittämällä is a Finnish adverbial participle form of the verb keittää, meaning to boil. The suffix -malla (or -mällä) creates an instrumental or adverbial construction that expresses the method or means by which an action is performed. In English this corresponds roughly to “by boiling” or “through boiling.” Keittämällä is used to indicate how something is done, often in instructional, culinary, or technical contexts.

Morphology and usage

The base is keittä- from keittää, with the participle suffix -malla producing keittämällä. The form is typically placed in sentences to link a method to the main verb, functioning similarly to phrases like “by boiling” in English. It can appear in imperative or descriptive clauses and is common in recipes, manuals, and scientific or food-processing texts. The related noun keittäminen refers to the boiling process itself, while keittäjää or keittäminen- forms describe agents or activities related to boiling.

Examples

- Keittämällä vettä bakteerit tuhoutuvat. (By boiling water, bacteria are destroyed.)

- Keittämällä kastike saa paremman koostumuksen. (By boiling, the sauce gains a better texture.)

Relation to other forms

Keittämällä contrasts with the participial forms that describe the state after boiling (e.g., keitetty, boiled) or with the noun keittäminen, which names the process. The adverbial participle keittämällä maintains a neutral, instructional tone and is appropriate for instructional writing, manuals, and informative prose.

See also

Keittäminen, keitetty, keittäjä.