ryhmässä

Ryhmässä is the inessive singular form of the Finnish noun ryhmä, meaning “group.” In Finnish grammar, the inessive case marks location inside something, so ryhmässä literally means “in the group.” It is used to describe where someone or something is located within a group, or to indicate being part of a group in a figurative sense.

Morphology and related forms: The singular inessive form is ryhmässä, and the plural inessive is ryhmissä. The base noun ryhmä also inflects in other cases (for example, genitive ryhmän, partitive ryhmää), but ryhmässä specifically denotes location inside a group. Finnish nouns follow vowel harmony and standard case patterns, and ryhmässä conforms to these rules.

Usage notes: Ryhmässä is common in educational, workplace, and social contexts when describing group participation, collaboration, or placement. Examples include: “Opiskelijat työskentelevät ryhmässä.” (The students work in a group.) “Olemme samassa ryhmässä.” (We are in the same group.) The form contrasts with iltive ryhmään (into the group) and elative ryhmästä (out of the group), which express different spatial relations.

Overview: Ryhmässä exemplifies how Finnish uses cases to express spatial and relational meaning without prepositions. As a locative form, it signals membership or presence inside a group rather than arrival or departure, which would be expressed by other cases.