Yksikertaisena

The word yksikertaisena is a Finnish adverbial form derived from the noun yksikkö, meaning "unit" or "single," combined with the suffix -taisena, which indicates a manner or state. In everyday Finnish, yksikertaisena expresses the idea of "in a single instance" or "once" as opposed to repeated occurrences. It is often used in contexts where a single action or event is emphasized, such as “Yksikertaisena voimme kokeilla tätä menetelmää” meaning “We can try this method only once.”

The term is closely related to the verb yksitellen, which means to do something step by step or one by one. While yksitellen focuses on the process, yksikertaisena emphasizes the singular completion. The suffix -taisena is a common morphological element in Finnish forming adverbial or nominalized adjectives that convey a circumstance or mode, similar to the English adverbial '-ly' or the noun-forming '-ness.'

Because Finnish is a highly agglutinative language, words like yksikertaisena illustrate how morphological changes convey nuance without altering the core root. The word is not widely used in literary Finnish but appears in colloquial speech and instructional contexts, particularly in educational materials that contrast repeated versus singular actions.