seistessä

Seistessä is a Finnish verb form derived from the verb seisoa, meaning to stand. It is the inessive gerund, a non-finite form used to describe an action that occurs at the same time as another action, roughly translating to "while standing" or "in a standing position." It is typically used to introduce adverbial clauses that provide circumstantial information about time or setting.

The form inflects for person and possessive, for example seistessään (he/she/they were standing), seistessäni (I was standing), seistessäsi (you were standing). An example sentence is: Hän puhui seistessään lavan edessä ("He spoke while standing in front of the stage"). The gerund can express concurrent actions and background conditions in both written and spoken Finnish, with a more formal or descriptive tone.

Related forms include seisoen, the present adverbial participle meaning "standing" as a manner, which differs from the gerund in nuance, often emphasizing how something is done rather than the timing. In practice, seistessä is most common in written Finnish and in formal or descriptive prose, though forms of the gerund appear in everyday language as well.

Notes: Finnish uses non-finite verb forms like seistessä to link clauses without conjunctions. The choice between seistessä and seisoen can subtly affect nuance: seistessä highlights a concurrent time frame, while seisoen stresses the manner of standing. Seistessä is thus a versatile tool for situational description and scene setting.

See also: seisoa, gerund, participles, Finnish grammar.