Pehmeinä

Pehmeinä is a Finnish adjective form meaning “as soft” or “soft” in a plural, often used to express a temporary state or role. It is the essive case form of the adjective pehmeä, which describes texture, feel, or gentleness.

Morphology and form: In Finnish, the essive case marks a state or role and has distinct singular and plural endings. For pehmeä, the singular essive is pehmeänä (as soft), and the plural essive is pehmeinä (as soft ones). The form pehmeinä shows agreement with a plural subject and is used after a linking verb or in predicative constructions to describe how several things are presented or perceived.

Usage: Pehmeinä is most common in contexts where multiple items are described as taking on a soft or gentle quality, often in descriptive or literary language. It is formed from the stem pehme- with the essive plural ending -nä, following Finnish vowel harmony rules. In ordinary speech, speakers may instead use the nominative pluralpehmeät or other constructions depending on nuance, but pehmeinä remains correct for expressing the specific “as soft” state.

Examples: Nuo tyynyt ovat pehmeinä. (Those cushions are soft, in the sense of being soft to the touch or perceived state.) Kuvat voivat esittää asiat pehmeinä, ei kovina. (Images may present things as soft, not hard.)

See also: pehmeä, essive case, Finnish grammar.