Tehtäessä

Tehtäessä is a Finnish adverbial participle derived from the verb tehdä (to do, to make). It expresses a circumstance related to the action of the main clause, roughly meaning “while doing” or “in the act of doing.” The clause introduced by tehtäessä is non-finite and the action described is simultaneous with the action in the main clause. The subject of tehtäessä can be the same as or different from the subject of the main clause, depending on context.

In grammar, tehtäessä is one of the adverbial participles formed with the suffix -essä (the -essa/-ässä family of forms). It is built from the verb stem with this suffix, producing a non-finite clause that indicates background activity or condition. This form is commonly found in written Finnish and in formal or instructional prose.

Usage and style notes: tehtäessä is most frequent in manuals, guidelines, safety notices, procedural texts, and legal language, where concise, temporally bounded statements are needed. It allows writers to attach a circumstance directly to the main action without forming a separate finite clause. The form can add nuance such as simultaneity or a condition under which the main clause holds.

Examples (illustrative): Tehtäessä tämän ohjeen mukaan laitteet pysyvät turvallisina. Tehtäessä työvaiheita on varmistettava, ettei kosketa lämpimiä pintoja. In everyday speech, speakers may opt for more common conjunctions or finite clauses, but tehtäessä remains a useful tool for compact, formal description of procedures.