Word
Minä olen tarjoilijana ravintolassa.
Meaning
I am working as a waiter in a restaurant.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Minä olen tarjoilijana ravintolassa.
olla
to be
minä
I
ravintola
restaurant
tarjoilija
the waiter
Questions & Answers about Minä olen tarjoilijana ravintolassa.
Why is it tarjoilijana instead of just tarjoilija?
The -na ending is the essive case. It translates to 'as a waiter'. While Minä olen tarjoilija means 'I am a waiter' (as a permanent profession or identity), saying Minä olen tarjoilijana implies 'I am working as a waiter' as a current role or temporary job.
Why does tarjoilijana use -na instead of -nä?
This is due to vowel harmony. The word tarjoilija contains the back vowels a and o. Because of these back vowels, the word must take the back-vowel ending -na.
The English translation says 'I am working', but the Finnish sentence only uses olen. Do I need to add a word for 'working'?
No, you do not! In Finnish, combining the verb olla (to be) with a noun in the essive case naturally means you are acting in that role or working as that profession. You don't need a separate verb like työskentelen (I work) here.
What case is ravintolassa in?
It is in the inessive case. The ending -ssa means 'in' or 'inside', so ravintolassa tells us the action is happening inside the restaurant.