etsimässä

Etsimässä is a Finnish verbal form derived from the verb etsiä, meaning "to search" or "to look for." Morphologically it consists of the verb stem etsi- plus the suffix -mässä, a present-participial or inessive form that denotes ongoing action or an action in progress. The form is commonly used to express that someone is in the process of searching or is out to find something.

In grammar, etsimässä functions adverbially or predicatively, often together with a form of olla (to be) to form a progressive-like construction: for example, Olen etsimässä avainta ("I am looking for a key"). It can also appear in subordinate clauses and in phrases that indicate purpose or current activity. Objects of etsimässä typically follow Finnish case rules (often taking the partitive for incomplete or ongoing actions).

In translation, etsimässä is most commonly rendered as "searching," "looking for," or "in search of." It is frequently used in everyday speech, literature, journalism, and titles to convey active seeking or investigation. Related forms include the infinitive etsiä, the present tense etsin/etsit/etsi, and the passive and perfect participles used to express other temporal or aspectual nuances.

Etymologically, etsimässä comes directly from the modern Finnish verb etsiä and shares semantic and morphological patterns with other Finnic-language verb forms for expressing ongoing action.