vieraalla

Vieraalla is a Finnish grammatical form derived from the word vieras, which can mean either foreign or guest depending on context. In its adessive singular form, vieraalla is used to mark location, surface, or state in phrases that describe something as being foreign or unfamiliar to the speaker’s context. This use is common in everyday language and in formal writing alike.

As an adjective, vieraalla modifies a noun in the adessive case, yielding phrases such as vieraalla kielellä (in a foreign language) and vieraalla maaperällä (on foreign soil). The adessive case serves to indicate location or state and is one of several Finnish locative endings. The form can also appear in noun-related contexts, where it relates to vieras in the sense of “guest,” though such uses are less frequent in ordinary speech and often appear in literary or idiomatic expressions. Etymologically, vieraalla follows directly from vieras, the base meaning of foreign or unfamiliar, and adopts the typical Finnish adessive ending. See also vieras, vierailla, and the adessive case for related grammatical forms.