määräättäessään

Määräättäessään is a Finnish grammatical form. It is the third infinitive of the verb "määrätä," which means to appoint, decree, order, or determine. The third infinitive in Finnish is a participle form that is used to express an ongoing or habitual action in relation to another action, often indicating a cause or a condition.

When translated literally, "määräättäessään" means something akin to "when appointing," "while ordering," or "upon determining." It is typically used in subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like "kun" (when) or "silloin kun" (at the time when), or it can stand alone in certain idiomatic constructions. The "-ssään" ending indicates that the subject of the action is the same as the subject of the main clause, and it is in the possessive form, implying "in its/his/her/their appointing."

For instance, in a sentence like "Hän sai huomionnoivia katseita määräättäessään tehtäviä" (He received appreciative glances when assigning tasks), "määräättäessään" describes the action of assigning tasks that was occurring simultaneously with or was the reason for receiving the glances. It conveys a sense of the subject actively performing the action of appointing or determining at a specific time or during a certain period. The form is relatively common in formal and literary Finnish.