sileinä

Sileinä is the plural essive form of the Finnish adjective sileä, meaning smooth or even. In Finnish grammar, the essive case expresses a temporary state or role, similar to the English "as X." Thus sileinä translates roughly to "as smooth ones" or "in a smooth state" when referring to multiple subjects.

Etymology and forms: The base adjective sileä is common in Finnish and describes texture, surfaces, and quality. The form sileinä is the essive plural, used with plural subjects to denote their state of being smooth at a given time. Related forms include sileä (singular), sileänä (singular essive), and sileiksi (translative/plural for “become smooth”). The word is part of everyday vocabulary for describing tangible qualities as well as metaphorical states in more literary contexts.

Usage: Sileinä describes multiple items collectively in the state of being smooth. It is frequently used with surfaces, textures, and objects, for example in descriptive prose or technical descriptions. In everyday speech, speakers more often use singular forms or other descriptors, but sileinä appears in narratives, poetry, or formal writing to convey a collective smooth state.

Examples:

- Kivet olivat sileinä. (The rocks were smooth.)

- Pöytien pinnat olivat sileinä. (The surfaces of the tables were smooth.)

See also: Finnish grammar, essive case, sileä (the base adjective), related texture descriptors such as tasainen or sileä pinta.