piirtäessä

Piirtäessä is a Finnish adverbial participle form of the verb piirtää (to draw). It expresses a simultaneous action and can be translated into English as “while drawing” or “in the act of drawing.” The form is typically used to link two actions in a sentence, indicating that the drawing activity is ongoing at the time the main verb occurs. It is more common in written Finnish and in formal or literary contexts, where a subordinate clause conveys the timing of the action.

Form and usage details: piirtäessä is created from the verb stem piirtä- plus the suffix -essä, following the regular pattern for non-finite adverbial participles in Finnish. The form can appear without an explicit subject in the main clause, and it can take possessive suffixes to indicate the subject more precisely, for example piirtäessäni meaning “while I was drawing.” It can also appear in third-person contexts, such as Piirtäessä hän kuunteli musiikkia, meaning “While drawing, he listened to music.”

Examples:

- Piirtäessä hän kuunteli musiikkia.

- Piirtäessäni opettaja antoi lisäohjeita.

- Hän kertoi tarinan piirtäessä.

Related forms include the noun piirtäminen (the act of drawing) and the present participle piirtävä (one who draws) for broader grammatical use. While piirtäessä is a standard grammatical tool, its use is more typical in literary or carefully structured prose; everyday spoken Finnish often relies on simpler clauses to convey similar timing.