Terävän

Terävään is a Finnish adjective form. It is the illative singular of terävä, meaning sharp, keen, or acute. In Finnish, adjectives decline to agree with the case and number of the noun they describe; terävään is used when the noun it modifies is in the illative case, typically signaling direction into or toward something associated with sharpness or pointedness.

Usage of terävään is most common when the noun it modifies is present in illative, for example to indicate movement into a sharp object or state. It is not a standalone word in ordinary prose; it functions as an inflected form of terävä that accompanies a following illative noun or stands with an omitted noun in contexts such as technical or poetic language.

Examples:

- Neula työnnettiin terävään kärkeen. (The needle was pushed into a sharp tip.)

- Leikkauspinta osui terävään reunaan. (The cutting edge struck the sharp edge.)

These phrases illustrate how terävään governs the illative noun to convey direction toward sharpness.

Related forms of the adjective include terävä (positive), terävän (genitive), teräviä (partitive), and other case forms that agree with a noun’s number and case. Etymologically, terävään is derived from the base adjective terävä combined with Finnish inflection to express illative case.

See also: terävä, Finnish adjective declension, illative case.