Lehdellä

Lehdellä is the adessive singular form of the Finnish noun lehti, which can mean either a leaf of a plant or a sheet of paper such as a page or a newspaper. The form is used to indicate location on a surface, for example something being on the surface of a leaf or on a sheet of paper.

Morphology and range: In Finnish, nouns take the adessive case with the suffix -llä or -llä depending on vowel harmony. For lehti, the singular adessive form is lehdellä. This form interacts with the noun’s other cases in typical Finnish inflection patterns. The sense of lehti as leaf or as a page of a book or magazine influences how the phrase is interpreted in a given context.

Usage and examples: The primary sense is physical location on a leaf. For instance, perhonen lepää lehdellä, meaning a butterfly rests on a leaf. When referring to pages in printed material, speakers more commonly use other expressions such as sivulla (on a page) or, when speaking about a newspaper or periodical, sanomalehdessä (in the newspaper), rather than lehdellä. Lehdellä can appear in descriptive statements about the surface of a leaf or, in broader contexts, when the leaf sense is intended or when the surface is being treated as a “leaf” of a larger object.

Etymology and related forms: Lehti is a core Finnish noun with senses related to both leaf and page. The adessive form lehdellä is created by adding the standard Finnish -llä suffix to the noun. This formation follows regular Finnish case patterns and aligns with other nouns that denote a surface or location.

See also: lehti; Finnish grammar; adessive case.