vähäisestä

Vähäisestä is the elative singular form of the Finnish adjective vähäinen, meaning "small," "few," or "meager." It functions to indicate origin from a small amount or degree and is used before a noun in the elative case, or with a noun phrase in elative.

In Finnish, adjectives decline like nouns, so vähäinen takes endings that match the case and number of the noun it describes. The elative singular form is -isestä/-isestä after a preceding consonant, yielding vähäisestä. This form is typical when expressing “from a small amount,” “out of a small amount,” or “of a minor degree.” For example, phrases such as vähäisestä rahasta (from a small amount of money), vähäisestä kokemuksesta (from little experience), or vähäisestä tiedosta (from scant information) illustrate its use.

The word is often contrasted with suurempi or runsaampi expressions to emphasize scarcity or insufficiency. The corresponding adverb is vähäisesti, used to describe manner rather than quantity, for example, “Tuo oli vähäisesti sanottu” (That was said sparingly/briefly).

Etymologically, vähäinen derives from the root vähä- meaning “little” or “few,” with the adjectival suffix -inen. The elative -sta/-stä marks source or origin, as in many other Finnish adjectives and nouns.

See also: vähäinen, vähemmän, vähiten, vähemmän, vähempi. The concept is central to Finnish expressions of quantity, degree, and sufficiency, and it interacts with numerals and other quantifiers to convey scarcity or insufficiency in discourse.

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