Piilottamalla

Piilottamalla is a Finnish verbal form meaning "by hiding" or "through hiding". It is the adverbial participle (also called the instructive or gerund-like form) of the verb piilottaa ("to hide") and expresses the means, manner or method by which an action is performed.

Formed by adding the suffix -malla/-mällä to the verb stem, piilottamalla conveys how something is done: for example, "Hän pelasti asiakirjat piilottamalla ne laatikkoon" — "He saved the documents by hiding them in a box." The choice between -malla and -mällä follows Finnish vowel harmony rules; the suffix matches the stem vowels. The form is invariant for person and number and is commonly used in combination with a main clause to indicate cause, method or circumstance.

Piilottamalla can appear in various contexts, from everyday speech (Piilottamalla lelun löydät myöhemmin — By hiding the toy you will find it later) to instructions and descriptions of strategies (Esineet suojataan piilottamalla — Items are protected by hiding). Related forms include the infinitive piilottaa, the present/past participles, and colloquial constructions that express similar meanings (e.g., piilottelemalla, which suggests repeated or cautious hiding). As a grammatical element, piilottamalla illustrates how Finnish encodes means and manner without separate prepositions.