Lähtevänä

Lähtevänä is a Finnish grammatical form derived from the verb lähteä, meaning to depart or to leave. It is the essive form of the present active participle lähtevä, used to express a state or role—roughly, “being in the state of leaving” or “as one who is about to depart.” The form is part of Finnish participial patterns that allow adjectives or adverbial phrases with a state-of-being nuance.

Morphology and use. The base participle is lähtevä (leaving). By adding the essive ending -na/-nä, the form becomes lähtevänä, which signals a temporary or ongoing state rather than a completed action. In practice, lähtevänä appears in descriptive or literary contexts to emphasize the situation in which someone or something is in the act of leaving or prepared to leave. It can function as a modifier or appear in predicative constructions alongside a form of olla (to be) or in subordinate clauses that describe circumstance.

Function and nuance. Lähtevänä tends to carry a nuance of immediacy or immediacy of departure, distinguishing it from the plain present participle lähtevä, which simply denotes the action of leaving. The essive form thus conveys “as someone who is leaving” rather than simply “someone who leaves.” Because the usage is more literary and formal, it is less common in everyday spoken Finnish, where simpler forms or different constructions are typically preferred.

See also. Lähteä, present active participles in Finnish, Essive case in Finnish grammar, Finnish participial forms.