Selvästä

Selvästä is the elative singular form of the Finnish adjective selvä, which means clear, obvious, or well understood. In Finnish grammar, elative forms express origin or basis, and selvästä appears when the adjective modifies a noun that appears in the elative case in the same clause. The most common usage of selvästä is in phrases that indicate a reason, cause, or basis, such as selvästä syystä.

In practice, selvästä is most often encountered in formal or written Finnish. A typical expression is selvästä syystä, which can be translated as for a clear reason or on these grounds. In such constructions, the adjective and the noun work together to qualify the subsequent proposition or explanation. The sense conveyed is that the stated reason or basis is obvious or uncontested.

Selvä can also function as a standalone interjection meaning “Got it” or “Understood,” but in the form selvästä this function is not applicable; selvä is used in that interjective sense, not selvästä. The elative form selvästä thus belongs to more specific grammatical contexts, rather than everyday speech.

Etymologically, selvästä derives from the core Finnish adjective selvä, with the elative suffix -stä marking a relation of origin, cause, or basis when paired with a noun in the elative. Related forms of the adjective include selvä (base form) and other case-inflected forms such as selvän or selvää, depending on number and case of the noun they modify.

See also: selvä, Finnish grammar, elative case, partitive and other noun cases in Finnish.