vaikeuksiin

Vaikeuksiin is the illative plural form of the Finnish noun vaikeus, meaning difficulties or trouble. The illative case expresses movement into or entrance into a state, and in this form it conveys “into difficulties” or “into trouble.” It is commonly used with verbs that describe entering a problematic situation, such as joutua, päästä, or päätyä.

Usage and examples

Vaikeuksiin is used to describe becoming involved in difficulties or trouble. Examples include: Hän joutui vaikeuksiin velkojensa vuoksi. (He got into trouble because of his debts.) He päätyivät vaikeuksiin epäonnisen liikematkan seurauksena. (They ended up in difficulties as a result of an unfortunate business trip.) The expression can be used both for concrete problems (financial or logistical) and for more abstract obstacles (progress in a project, personal circumstances).

Relation to related forms

Vaikeus has other grammatical forms corresponding to different cases and numbers, such as vaikeudet (the difficulties, plural nominative) and vaikeuksien (of the difficulties, genitive). The elative form would be vaikeuksista (out of difficulties), and the illative singular would be vaikeuteen (into a difficulty). Vaikeuksiin is therefore specifically the plural illative, used when the speaker refers to entering multiple difficulties or trouble as a state.

See also

vaikeus, vaikeuksien, vaikeuksista, ongelma, joutua, päästä, päätyä.