Questions & Answers about Edistymme pienin askelein.
How do we form the instructive case seen in pienin askelein?
The instructive ending is always -in, and it is attached to the plural stem of the word. For the adjective pieni, the plural stem is pieni-, so it becomes pienin. For the noun askel (step), the plural stem is askelei-, which gives us askelein.
Why does pieni become pienin here? Doesn't the instructive case usually just apply to the noun?
The general rule of case agreement still applies! When a noun is in the instructive case, any adjective modifying it must also take the instructive case. Because the steps being taken are in the instructive (askelein), the adjective modifying them must be as well (pienin).
Could I use the adessive case (pienillä askelilla) instead to mean "with small steps"?
Grammatically, yes, you could use the adessive plural (pienillä askelilla). However, the instructive case is much more idiomatic and natural for established expressions that describe how or by what means an action is performed, such as pienin askelein (with small steps) or omin silmin (with one's own eyes).
The verb is edistymme (from edistyä). How is this different from the similar-looking verb edistää?
Edistyä is an intransitive verb, meaning the subject itself is moving forward or making progress, as in this sentence. Edistää is transitive and means "to promote" or "to advance" something else, which means it requires an object (for example, edistämme hanketta, "we are advancing the project").
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