pehmeään

Pehmeään is the illative singular form of the Finnish adjective pehmeä, meaning “soft.” In Finnish, the illative expresses motion into or toward something, often translated as “into the soft ….” Therefore pehmeään is used when the noun it describes is in the illative case, for example pehmeään tyynyyn (into the soft pillow).

As a grammatical form, pehmeään agrees with the noun in number and case. The illative singular of pehmeä is pehmeään, while the illative plural form is pehmeisiin (into the soft ones). Adjectives in Finnish modify nouns and take the same case endings as the nouns they describe, so pehmeään appears before the illative-noun combination.

Usage examples include: Hän upposi pehmeään tyynyyn. (She sank into the soft pillow.) Käsi upposi pehmeään lumeen. (The hand sank into the soft snow.) Hän istui pehmeään sohvaan. (He sat into the soft sofa.) These examples show how pehmeään marks the target of motion as being soft, with the noun following in its illative form.

Etymology-wise, pehmeä is a native Finnish adjective describing texture or feel, and pehmeään is its standard illative singular form used in compound phrases with illative nouns. The form is primarily a grammatical marker rather than a standalone lexical item with a separate meaning.

See also: Finnish grammar, illative case, adjectives in Finnish, noun-adjective agreement.