epävakaassa

Epävakaassa is Finnish for “in an unstable,” and functions as the inessive singular form of the adjective epävakaa, meaning unstable. It is used to describe that something exists or occurs within a state or condition that is unstable, typically in phrases where a noun in the inessive case follows, such as tilassa, tilanteessa, or olosuhteessa.

In Finnish grammar, adjectives decline to agree with the case and number of the noun they modify. When the noun is in the inessive case, the adjective takes the corresponding inessive ending, resulting in epävakaassa. The phrase therefore means “in an unstable [state/condition].” The construction is common in formal and descriptive writing, especially when discussing systems, economies, weather, or political climates.

Common collocations include epävakaassa tilassa (in an unstable state), epävakaassa tilanteessa (in an unstable situation), and epävakaissa olosuhteissa (in unstable conditions). The word is almost always part of a larger noun phrase rather than used alone.

Related terms include epävakaus, the noun meaning instability, and epävakainen, the related adjective meaning unstable in a more general sense. Epävakauden and other inflected forms are used to express different grammatical relations in Finnish, while epävakaassa serves specifically to denote state-aspect in the inessive.

See also: epävakaus, epävakainen.