Muutettaessaan

Muutettaessaan is a Finnish adverbial participle form of the verb muuttaa, meaning to change. It denotes that a change takes place in connection with another action, roughly translating to “while changing” or “as (someone) changes.” It is used to introduce a subordinate clause that describes simultaneity or a process occurring alongside the action in the main clause. The construction is common in written Finnish and in more formal or instructional text, and it is less frequent in everyday speech.

Morphology and use: The form is created from the verb stem muutta- by adding a combination of the participial suffix -tta- along with the personal suffix -essaan, which marks a third-person singular subject in the main clause. The usual expectation is that the subject of both clauses is the same. The object that is changed in the subordinate clause can appear in various cases (often partitive, depending on the verb’s valence). The form is parallel to other verbs in -ta/-tto with the same adverbial participle pattern, such as kirjoittaessaan or muuttamatta.

Context and constraints: Muutettaessaan signals simultaneity and can convey a subtle causal nuance (a change happening during the action described in the main clause). It tends to appear in written or formal prose, technical writing, or legal/regulatory texts. If the intended subject differs between clauses, other grammatical constructions or finite clauses are typically used.

Examples:

- Hän muutettaessaan suunnitelmaa huomasi virheen. (As he was changing the plan, he noticed a mistake.)

- Muutettaessa asetuksia järjestelmä käyttää uutta protokollaa. (When the settings are changed, the system uses the new protocol.)