selvitäkseen

Selvitäkseen is a Finnish grammatical form derived from the verb selvitä, which means "to survive" or "to get through" in a challenging situation. The form selvitäkseen is the purpose infinitive (also called the ti-form or semi-infinitive) used in subordinate clauses that express purpose or intent. It is conjugated in the third person singular and translates roughly to the English "in order to survive" or "so that one can survive."

Morphologically, selvitäkseen is produced by attaching the inflectional endings -kseen to the verb stem selvitä. The base stem selv- is combined with the auxiliary –ti for the semi-infinitive, followed by the suffix –kseen which marks the purpose element. This form is typically found in clauses introduced by words such as jotta (so that), jotta että, or kun (when) to indicate a causal or purposive relationship. Because it is a subordinate form, it is not used in main clauses.

In practice, selvitäkseen is employed when describing actions undertaken by a subject with the goal of surviving. For example, a sentence might read: Hän teki kaikkensa selvitäkseen, which means "He did everything to survive." The form can also appear with negative particles, such as ei selvitäkseen, to express a lack of survival effort.

Selvitäkseen can appear in narratives, reports, and speeches, often in contexts involving hardship, disaster, or difficult living conditions. While it is quite common in spoken Finnish, written Finnish may use alternative expressions such as selviä lisä -aspects or employ the conditional form to convey the same intent.