herättämättä

Herättämättä is a Finnish negative adverbial participle formed from the verb herättää, meaning “to awaken.” The form literally means “without waking” and is used to describe an action performed without causing wakefulness or disturbance. It is created by attaching the suffix -mättä to the verb stem, yielding herättämättä. Like other -mättä forms such as tekemättä or lukematta, it is non-finite and does not inflect for person or number; its function is to modify the main verb and express manner.

Usage and meaning: The form is used in contexts where the speaker wants to indicate that something is done without waking someone. It often accompanies an implied or explicit object, as in “herättämättä ketään” (without waking anyone) or “herättämättä lasta” (without waking the child). The negative adverbial participle can appear before or after the main verb, depending on emphasis and sentence flow. It is common in written Finnish and in careful or descriptive speech, and it provides a compact alternative to more circumstantial constructions.

Morphology and related forms: The -mättä suffix participates in a set of negative adverbial participles in Finnish, parallel to forms like tekemättä, lukematta, syömättä. These constructions share the same grammatical role: they convey that the action is performed without performing the verb’s core action, often specifying manner or circumstance.

See also: Finnish adverbial participles, negative participles, examples of -mättä forms.