pitää kynttiläänsä vakan alla

Finnish

Etymology

Literally, “to keep one's candle under the bushel”, from the Bible.

Verb

pitää kynttiläänsä vakan alla

1. (idiomatic) to hide one's light under a bushel (to conceal one's talents or positive qualities, especially due to modesty or shyness; to avoid attention)

   Älä pidä kynttilääsi vakan alla!

   Don't hide your light under a bushel!

Conjugation

See pitää. kynttiläänsä is in the partitive case, but is inflected in the genitive in action nouns: see Appendix:Finnish verb phrases. It also takes a possessive suffix according to the subject of the sentence. vakan alla is not inflected.

possessor	singular	plural
1st person	kynttilääni	kynttiläämme
2nd person	kynttilääsi	kynttiläänne
3rd person	kynttiläänsä

Synonyms

• olla turhan vaatimaton