ehkäisevänä

Ehkäisevänä is the essive singular form of the Finnish adjective ehkäisevä, meaning preventive. In Finnish, the essive case marks a state or role, often translated as "as" in English. Thus, ehkäisevänä is used to indicate that something is acting in the capacity of a preventive measure or instrument.

Common usage occurs in formal or policy-oriented language. It typically appears in sentences with a noun in the essive form, for example: "Ehkäisevänä toimenpiteenä käytettiin rokotuskampanjaa" (A vaccination campaign was used as a preventive measure), or "Käytämme ehkäisevänä keinona rokotuksia." The form emphasizes function or purpose rather than a permanent attribute.

Plural use and related forms exist as well. The plural essive form is "ehkäisevinä," as in "Ehkäisevinä toimenpiteinä ovat rokotukset ja tiedon levittäminen" (As preventive measures are vaccinations and the dissemination of information). This illustrates how the essive form adapts to number and combines with plural nouns.

Notes on usage and style: ehkäisevänä is not a standalone noun but a grammatical form of the adjective, commonly found in administrative, legal, medical, and public policy texts. It helps specify that an action, policy, or tool is intended to prevent a future outcome. For dictionary entries, the base adjective is cezhemä as "ehkäisevä," with "ehkäisevänä" representing one of its case-inflected forms.

See also: Finnish grammar, essive case, adjectives in Finnish.