tähän

Tähän is a Finnish word that functions as the illative form of the demonstrative determiner tämä, meaning "this." In English, it translates roughly as "to this" or "into this," depending on the context. It is used to indicate direction toward something that is close to the speaker or to mark the referent of a clause.

As a grammatical form, tähän is used with verbs of movement or with other elements that require an illative interpretation. For example, in the phrase Laita se tähän laatikkoon, tarkoitetaan "Put it into this box," where laatikkoon is the illative form of "lauk" (box) and to this box is specified by tähän. Tähän can also appear as a stand-alone pronoun in clauses such as Tähän on helppo tarttua, roughly "This is easy to grab," where the focus is on the item near the speaker.

Tähän occurs widely in everyday Finnish and in fixed expressions. Common idioms include tähän mennessä meaning "up to this point" and tähän asti meaning "until now." The form contrasts with other proximal or distal demonstratives such as siihen (to that / there) and tuohon (to over there), which refer to objects or locations further from the speaker.

Etymology and usage notes: tähän is formed from the base demonstrative tämä (this) with the illative case ending used for indicating movement toward or into something. Its frequent use in instructions, descriptions, and conversational Finnish reflects the broader Finnish demonstrative system, which marks distance and direction relative to the speaker.