Tehtävänä

Tehtävänä is a Finnish grammatical form that comes from the noun tehtävä, meaning task or assignment. In its essive case, written as tehtävänä, it expresses the role, function, or state in which something or someone exists, typically translated as “as a task” or “in the capacity of a task.” The form is commonly used in predicative constructions with the verb olla (to be), to present what a task or duty is.

In practice, tehtävänä is used to define duties or responsibilities in formal and administrative language. It signals what is expected or required in a given situation, often in contexts such as work descriptions, project planning, or official notices. For example, Tehtävänä on varmistaa tiedot means “The task is to verify the data,” and Hänen tehtävänään on valvoa projektin etenemistä can be understood as “His/her assignment is to monitor the progress of the project.” The construction is distinct from simply referring to a task as tehtävä (nominative) and from possessive constructions like tehtäväni or tehtävänne, which specify ownership of the task.

Related grammar notes include the broader use of the essive case in Finnish to denote temporary states or roles, and its contrast with the translative case, which marks change into a new state. Tehtävänä is thus a functional tool for describing duties within formal Finnish prose and documentation. See also Finnish grammar, essive case, and tehtävä.