sinällään

Sinällään is a Finnish adverb meaning “in itself” or “as such.” It signals that a statement concerns the intrinsic or essential nature of something, independent of external factors or consequences.

The expression is widely used in both spoken and written Finnish and often serves to set apart what is true about something in its own right from considerations outside its core nature. It can introduce a contrast between an intrinsic property and a practical or contextual aspect, or it can prepare the listener for a qualification or caveat that follows.

In practice, sinällään can appear before a clause or within one, frequently punctuated by a comma when it marks a shift to a more evaluative or defining observation. Examples: “Sinällään ajatus on hyvä, mutta toteutus on puutteellinen.” (In itself, the idea is good, but the implementation is lacking.) “Se on sinällään totta, mutta…” (That, in itself, is true, but…).

Related terms include itsessään, which similarly means “in itself” or “in its own right,” and sinänsä, which means “in that respect” or “as far as that goes.” While sinällään emphasizes intrinsic properties, sinänsä tends to refer more to a particular aspect or respect.

Overall, sinällään is a neutral, informative expression used to foreground intrinsic qualities and to distinguish them from external considerations in discussion and analysis.