merkimällä

Merkimällä is a Finnish grammatical form that is associated with the verb merkitä, meaning to mark, label, or indicate. In Finnish grammar, its most common and standard gerund is merkitsemällä, which is used to express the means or method by which an action is carried out. Merkimällä, by contrast, is generally regarded as a nonstandard, dialectal, or historical variant and is rarely used in contemporary formal writing. When it appears, it should be interpreted as indicating that something is done by marking.

As a gerund, the form serves to introduce an adverbial clause of means or manner. It relates most directly to the idea of marking or labeling as a technique or step in a process. The concept is closely tied to other word forms such as merkki (mark, sign), merkitä (to mark), and merkintä (notation, annotation). In practice, writers typically prefer merkitsemällä to convey the intended meaning clearly and in standard Finnish.

In usage, merkitseminen or merkintä are often more common ways to discuss the act of marking in instructions, technical writing, and academic prose. The choice between merkimällä and merkitsemällä may reflect regional variation, historical usage, or a typographical error, but standard Finnish guidelines generally recognize merkitsemällä as the appropriate form for expressing means or method by marking. See also merkki, merkintä, and merkitä.