toimella

Toimella is the adessive singular form of the Finnish noun toim i, which means action, function, or operation. In Finnish grammar, the adessive case (ending -lla or -llä) marks location, state, or association. Therefore, toimella can be understood as “on the action” or “with the function,” depending on the context. The form is primarily encountered in linguistic descriptions, grammars, and dictionaries as an illustration of noun inflection rather than as a separate lexical item with a standalone meaning.

In everyday Finnish, speakers more commonly use other words or constructions to express related ideas. Concepts such as toiminta (activity) or phrases like toiminnassa (in operation) or käynnissä (running) are typically preferred. As a result, toimella is relatively rare in ordinary speech and tends to appear in formal writing, language descriptions, or historical texts when demonstrating how nouns decline across cases.

The root of toimella is toimi, a noun meaning action or function, which is historically linked to the verb toimia, “to act” or “to function.” The existence of the adessive form follows standard Finnish noun- and case-inflection patterns, illustrating how case endings convey syntactic relations within a sentence.

See also: toimia, toiminta, Finnish grammar.