esiintymään

Esiintymään is a Finnish verb form that expresses the idea of going to perform or appear in a public setting. It is the illative form of the verb esiintyä, which means to appear or to perform as a performer. In practice, esiintymään is used together with verbs of motion or intention to indicate the purpose or direction of the action, often translated as “to go to perform” or simply “to perform.”

The form is most commonly seen in phrases such as mennä esiintymään (to go to perform) or lähteä esiintymään (to head out to perform). It can also appear in sentences like Hän lähti esiintymään, meaning “He left to perform” or “He went out to perform.” In these uses, esiintymään functions as an infinitive that describes the goal or purpose of the main verb.

Esiintymään is closely related to the noun esiintyminen (an appearance, a performance) and to related terms such as esiintyjä (performer) and esiintyä (to appear/to perform). The choice between esiintyä and esiintymään depends on whether the focus is on the act itself (esiintyminen/esiintyä) or on the purpose or direction of the action (esiintymään in a phrase with a verb of motion).

Usage note: esiintymään is a non-finite form and cannot stand alone as a finite clause; it requires a controlling finite verb (like mennä, lähteä, tulla) to complete the sentence.