viimeisenä

Viimeisenä is a Finnish word that functions as the essive form of the adjective viimeinen, meaning last. It is used as an adverb or predicative form to express position in a sequence or to indicate that something is performed or occurs in the final role, i.e., “as the last one” or “lastly.”

In practice, viimeisenä appears in sentences describing order or succession. For example, Hän meni viimeisenä means “He went last.” Similarly, Viimeisenä puhujana hän piti puheensa means “As the last speaker, he gave his speech.” The form can also appear in time- and event-related phrases, such as in contexts referring to the final part of a sequence or a concluding moment.

Grammatical note: viimeisenä is derived from viimeinen with the essive case suffix -nä/-nä, which in Finnish marks “in the role of” or “as.” As a result, viimeisenä can function like an adverbial complement or a predicative element within a clause. The word agrees with its related adjectives in gender and number, but its essive form is not sensitive to plural or singular in the same way as nouns.

Related terms include other ordinal adjectives such as ensimmäinen (first) and toinen (second). Viimeinen itself refers to the end or last item, while viimeisenä specifically denotes the role or position of being last within a sequence.

See also: Finnish grammar, essive case, list and sequence expressions, first and last in Finnish.