itsestään

Itsestään is a Finnish adverb meaning by itself or on its own. It describes events or qualities that occur without external help, intervention, or influence, or that are inherent to something rather than caused by someone or something else. The expression is common in both everyday speech and written Finnish and can convey spontaneity, self-generated change, or natural processes.

Itsestään is typically used with verbs to denote automatic or self-originating actions, for example, auto pysähtyi itsestään (the car stopped by itself) or tapahtui itsestään (it happened by itself). It is also used with adjectives in phrases such as itsestään selvää (self-evident). The sense can cover phenomena that unfold without deliberate human intervention, as well as inherent characteristics of a thing.

Grammatically, itsestään is formed from the pronoun itse with the suffix -stään, producing a fixed adverbial expression. It contrasts with itsenäisesti (independently), where the emphasis is on deliberate or planned independence rather than spontaneous occurrence. Itsestään can carry a nuance of inevitability or naturalness, as in many natural or automatic processes.

In usage, itsestään often appears in contexts where the speaker wants to indicate that no external agency was needed or that the outcome was self-generated. It can also function tounderline a point in contrast to actions done by others or by external forces.

See also: itse, itsensä, itsenäinen.