keveillä

Keveillä is the plural adessive form of the Finnish adjective keveä, meaning light, gentle, or easy. It is not a standalone noun but a grammatical form used to describe how an action is performed or the state of something, typically signaling ease or lightness. Keveillä commonly appears in phrases that express manner, often with physical or metaphorical meaning.

Morphology and usage: Keveä belongs to the class of adjectives that can be inflected for case and number. The plural adessive form keveillä is used with plural nouns in the adessive case, as in keveillä askeleilla “with light steps,” keveillä käsillä “with light/gentle hands,” or keveillä sormilla “with nimble fingers.” The form can also occur in more figurative expressions, such as describing a performance or a style as accomplished with ease, for example, something done keveillä siivillä “on light wings” in a poetic sense.

Typical expressions: keveillä askeleilla, keveillä käsillä, keveillä sormilla, keveillä siivillä, kevyillä henkäyksillä. The phraseology is common in everyday Finnish as well as in literary or poetic contexts, and it often evokes restraint, grace, or effortless motion.

Notes: Keveillä is tied to the root keveä and shares its semantic range of lightness and ease. It is not used as a noun on its own; its meaning is conveyed through the surrounding noun in the adessive case or through fixed idiomatic expressions. Related terms include keveä, keveys, and other inflected forms such as keveällä or keveää depending on the grammatical context.

See also: keveä, keveys, Finnish grammar, adessive case.