haitallisempaan

Haitallisempaan is a Finnish inflected form of the adjective haitallinen, meaning harmful. It is used to express movement toward a state or option that is more harmful and is typically combined with a noun in the illative case. Common contexts include discussing options, situations, or plans that are judged to be more harmful, for example haitallisempaan vaihtoehtoon or haitallisempaan tilanteeseen.

Etymology and grammar: The base haitallinen means harmful. Its comparative form is haitallisempi, meaning “more harmful.” The illative singular form of the comparative is haitallisempaan, formed by adding the illative suffix -aan to the comparative stem haitallisemp-. This allows phrases such as haitallisempaan vaihtoehtoon ("to a more harmful option") or haitallisempaan tilanteeseen ("to a more harmful situation").

Usage examples:

- Päätös johti haitallisempaan vaihtoehtoon.

- Keskustelu näytti siirtyvän haitallisempaan suuntaan, eli haitallisempaan tilanteeseen.

- Asiantuntijat varoittivat siirtymästä haitallisempaan ratkaisuun.

Haitallisempaan is primarily a descriptive grammatical form, used to convey comparative harm in a clause that includes a noun in illative case. It appears across formal and informal Finnish, mainly in analytical writing, policy discussions, and discourse about risk or ethical considerations.