Perässä

Perässä is a Finnish word that functions as an adverbial postpositional form derived from perä, meaning rear or behind. It expresses being located behind something or following after something in motion, and it is used in both literal and figurative contexts.

In its spatial sense, perässä indicates a position behind another object. Common collocations include talon perässä (behind the house) and auto on perässä (the car is behind). In a movement sense, perässä describes pursuit or trailing, such as when one thing follows another over a distance or along a route. The sense of keeping up with others is also common, as in expressions that convey staying in someone’s wake or maintaining pace.

Figuratively, perässä can describe temporal or sequential following, such as keeping up with events, trends, or schedules. It can imply being in the wake of something or following in the footsteps of another, though the exact nuance depends on context and accompanying verbs and nouns.

Grammatical notes are that perässä is used with nouns to form a phrase indicating the thing being followed or located behind. It contrasts with edessä (in front) and takana (behind/in back) and relates to peräkkäin (in sequence) as part of a semantic field describing position and order. In Finnish usage, perässä helps convey notions of proximity, pursuit, and sequential relation rather than a simple spatial indicator alone.