iässä

iässä is the inessive form of the Finnish noun ikä (age) and is used to describe a state or period related to a person’s age or life stage. In English it can be rendered as “in age” or “at an age,” often conveying a sense of being in a particular phase of life, such as youth, adulthood, or one’s prime.

Grammatical notes: Ikä declines like a regular noun, and iässä is the inessive singular form. It commonly appears in fixed expressions that denote life stages or age-related status. Typical collocations include phrases such as parhaassa iässä (in the prime of life) and nuoruuden iässä (in youth). The construction usually combines iässä with adjectives or nouns in the genitive or with possessive forms to specify the subject.

Usage and meaning: iässä is primarily used in standard and literary Finnish to discuss age as a state rather than a precise number. It emphasizes the life-stage aspect rather than a specific year or age. The phraseology can express evaluation, description, or historical context about a period of life, rather than a simple timestamp.

Examples:

- Hän on parhaassa iässä. (They are in the prime of life.)

- Nuoruuden iässä tapahtui paljon muutoksia. (During youth, many changes took place.)

- Hän puhui asiasta aikuisen iässä. (He spoke about the matter in adult terms.)

See also: ikä, iänkäyttäminen (references to age-related language). The term iässä is a relatively formal or literary device and is less common in casual, everyday speech where numeric age might be stated more directly.