Puhtaalla

Puhtaalla is the adessive singular form of the Finnish adjective puhdas, meaning clean. It is used to express the state of cleanliness of a noun or to describe a noun in combination with another noun in the adessive case, often in phrases that indicate location or surface condition.

In Finnish grammar, puhdas behaves as an attributive adjective that agrees in case and number with the noun it modifies. When placed in front of a noun in the adessive or in phrases describing location, the form puhtaalla appears. Common collocations include puhtaalla pinnalla (on a clean surface), puhtaalla pöydällä (on the clean table), and puhtailla lattioilla (on the clean floors). These constructions are frequently used in everyday speech as well as in instructional or evaluative contexts to stress cleanliness or to specify where a clean condition exists.

The word and its inflected forms are used across domains such as household guidance, workplace cleanliness, laboratory protocols, and signage. While puhtaalla itself is not typically used as a standalone predicate adjective, it functions prominently within phrases that describe a surface, area, or object in a clean state or that denote location on a clean surface.

Etymologically, puhtaalla derives from puhdas (clean) with the spatial suffix -lla to create the adessive form. Its related forms in plural and other cases follow standard Finnish adjective declension patterns.

See also: Finnish grammar, adjectives in Finnish, adessive case, surface and cleanliness terminology.