vahingoittuaan

Vahingoittuaan is a Finnish adverbial participle form derived from the verb vahingoittua, meaning “after having been injured” or “having been harmed.” It is used to connect a subordinate clause to the main clause and to indicate that the subject had suffered an injury prior to the action described in the main clause. The construction expresses a completed past condition and is comparable to the English phrase “having been injured” in non-finite clauses.

In usage, vahingoittuaan is a non-finite clause that typically shares the subject with the main verb. It can convey cause, time, or sequence and is common in formal writing, such as news reports and official prose, though it also appears in literary texts. The clause is usually separated from the main clause by a comma. Because the subject is not explicitly repeated, the reader must rely on context to determine who was injured; ambiguity can arise if the subject changes between clauses.

Examples:

Hän lähti sairaalaan, vahingoittuaan vakavasti. This means “He left for the hospital, having been seriously injured.”

Hän ei osallistunut tilaisuuteen, vahingoittuaan aiemmin onnettomuudessa. This means “He did not attend the event, having been injured earlier in an accident.”