Questions & Answers about Me kuuntelemme musiikkia.
Why is the word for music musiikkia instead of the basic form musiikki?
Because the verb kuunnella (to listen) is a partitive verb. In Finnish, certain verbs always require their object to be in the partitive case. Since we are listening to the music, we add the partitive ending -a to musiikki.
Is there a word for "to" in this sentence, like in "listening to"?
No, you don't need a separate word for "to". The Finnish verb kuunnella already means "to listen to". The grammatical relationship is shown by putting the object (musiikkia) in the partitive case.
The dictionary form of the verb is kuunnella. Why does it change to kuuntele- here?
This is an example of consonant gradation. When conjugating kuunnella, the double consonant -nn- in the middle changes to -nt- before we add the personal ending -mme (for me, meaning "we").
How do I know if this means "we listen" or "we are listening"?
Finnish doesn't have a separate tense for things happening right now (the "-ing" form in English). Me kuuntelemme can mean both "We listen" as a general habit and "We are listening" right at this moment. You just use the context to figure it out!
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