pesemällä

Pesemällä is a Finnish adverbial participle formed from the verb pestä, meaning "to wash." It expresses the means or method by which an action is performed, roughly translating to "by washing" in English. The form is used to connect an action to the means used to achieve it, without introducing a separate subject.

Grammatically, pesemällä is the -mällä/-melä adverbial participle. It is invariable and does not inflect for person, number, or tense. It typically attaches to a main clause to indicate the method of the action, similar to a subordinate clause that denotes means.

Examples:

- Pesemällä kätesi huolellisesti voit ehkäistä infektioita. By washing your hands carefully you can prevent infections.

- Pesemällä astiat säännöllisesti pääset eroon bakteereista. By washing dishes regularly you get rid of bacteria.

- Pesemällä autosi säännöllisesti voit pitää sen kunnossa. By washing your car regularly you can keep it in good condition.

Usage notes: The construction is common in instructional, health, and descriptive writing and is also found in everyday speech. It does not express a purpose on its own but the means by which the preceding verb's action is accomplished. The form is one of several instrumental adverbial participles in Finnish, alongside tekemällä ("by doing"), lukemalla ("by reading"), etc. The stem remains tied to pestä and is not a separate noun.

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