Saadessaan

Saadessaan is a Finnish non-finite verb form derived from the verb saada, meaning "to get" or "to obtain." It functions as an adverbial participle and expresses a simultaneity or anteriority relation between the action in the main clause and the action described by saada. In practice, saadessaan is used to convey ideas like “having received” or “upon receiving,” with the action of receiving happening in relation to the action of the main clause.

Morphology and usage are characteristic of Finnish adverbial participles. The form is created from the verb stem and the suffix -essaan, which indicates that the subject of the participle is the same as the subject of the main clause. The result is a single, non-finite construction that can replace longer subordinate clauses in formal or literary prose. Because it is a non-finite form, saadessaan does not carry its own tense; the temporal interpretation comes from context and the rest of the sentence.

In terms of register, saadessaan is more common in written Finnish and in historical or literary texts than in everyday spoken language, where speakers might opt for conjunctions and finite verb clauses (for example, kun hän sai … or saatuan …) to express similar ideas. Translators often render saadessaan as “having received” or “upon receiving,” depending on the surrounding context.

See also: Finnish grammar, adverbial participles, non-finite verb forms.