pienellä

Pienellä is the adessive singular form of the Finnish adjective pieni, meaning small. It is used in noun phrases when the modified noun is in the adessive case (which marks location or means, typically translated as “on/at/with”). In these constructions pienellä conveys that something is small in size and that the phrase refers to a location or instrument.

Morphology and usage: Finnish adjectives decline to agree with the noun they modify in number and case. The adessive singular ending -llä/-llä appears as pienellä when paired with a singular noun in the adessive. The plural form is pienillä. Common contexts include indicating location (on a small object) or means (with a small tool). Examples often appear with the noun in adessive, such as pienellä polulla or pienellä lusikalla.

Examples:

- Hain kahvia pienellä lusikalla. (“I took coffee with a small spoon.”)

- Kävelin pienellä polulla metsään. (“I walked along a small path into the forest.”)

- Pienellä sormella hän näppäili näppäimistöä. (“With a small finger he was typing on the keyboard.”)

Notes: Pienellä is one of many inflected forms of pieni used to align with the noun’s case. It does not stand alone as a separate lexical item beyond its role as a declined adjective form. The word illustrates how Finnish adjectives encode both size and grammatical relationship to the noun within a single phrase. See also Finnish grammar on adjectives, adessive case, and noun-adjective agreement.