Päästämällä

Päästämällä is a Finnish verbal noun (gerund) formed from the verb päästää, meaning to let go, to release, or to permit. The form is built with the suffix -malla/-mällä, yielding päästämällä. It functions as an adverbial gerund, indicating the means or manner by which an action is performed, and can introduce subordinate clauses or serve as a noun within a sentence. In translation, it is often rendered as “by letting (someone/something) go” or “by releasing.”

Usage and nuance: The gerund is common in formal and written Finnish, especially in procedural, legal, or descriptive text, where the author wants to express how something is achieved. Examples include: “Päästämällä heidät menemään, vältimme konfliktin” (“By letting them go, we avoided the conflict”). It can refer to releasing people, animals, or objects and can express cause, condition, or instrument. The agent performing the action is usually indicated by case construction or understood from context.

Relationship to other forms: Päästämällä is part of Finnish’s system of verbal nouns; other -malla/-mällä forms include tekemällä (by doing) and lukemalla (by reading). The choice between different verbals forms, such as the -malla/-mällä gerund versus nouns ending in -minen, depends on nuance and syntactic role.