levitessään

Levitessään is a Finnish participial form derived from the verb levitä, meaning "to spread." It functions as an adverbial participle that expresses a simultaneous action, roughly translating to "as it spreads" or "while it spreads." In Finnish, such participial clauses can connect two parts of a sentence without a conjunction, providing descriptive background or movement of events. The form typically refers to the subject of the main clause.

Morphology and usage: Levitessään is formed by taking the verb levitä and adding the suffix -essään, which creates a present participle that refers to the subject of the main clause. This construction is common in descriptive or narrative prose and can add a sense of immediacy or continuity to the described action. It is most natural when the subject of the main clause and the subject of the participle are the same.

Examples: Sana levisi nopeasti, levitessään kylästä toiseen. Uutinen levisi sosiaalisessa mediassa, levitessään ihmisten kuiskauksista keskustelut myöhemmin laajemmaksi. Laulu levisi kaupungin laidalta toiselle, levitessään ihmisestä toiseen.

See also: Finnish grammar, participial clauses in Finnish, verb levitä.

Note: Levitessään is primarily a literary and formal device. In everyday Finnish, speakers may use finite clauses or different subordinating constructions to express similar ideas.