Nimisanaisesti

Nimisanaisesti is a term used in Finnish linguistics to describe a mode of expression in which the main semantic load is carried by nouns and noun phrases rather than by finite verbs. The word is formed from nimisana, meaning noun, and the adverbial suffix -isesti, yielding “in a nominal way.” The concept is closely related to nominalization and to verbless or nominal predication, in which a clause’s predication is expressed with nouns, adjectives, or noun phrases, sometimes with the verb olla (to be) omitted in analysis.

In practice, texts described as nimisanaisesti marked may appear in headlines, labels, poetry, signage, or technical writing where conciseness and focus on entities are valued. It is used as a descriptive label in linguistic analyses to contrast with verbal or predicate-centered constructions. The term can help explain how Finnish can convey content with nominal structure and how readers infer predicates from context.

The term is not uniformly standardized across Finnish grammars. Some sources treat it as a descriptive convenience for discussing nominal-dominant clauses, while others prefer the broader umbrella of nominalization or ellipses in grammar. As a concept, nimisanaisesti serves to clarify stylistic and syntactic patterns where nouns take precedence in meaning over verbs.

See also: Nimisanat; Nominalization; Verbless clause.