Questions & Answers about Missä sinä olit tarjoilijana?
Why is the ending -na added to tarjoilija?
The -na ending is the essive case, which is used to talk about roles, professions, or temporary states. By adding it to tarjoilija (waiter), it means "as a waiter".
The English translation says "working as a waiter", but there is no verb for "to work" here. Why?
That's right! The Finnish sentence literally translates to "Where were you as a waiter?". In Finnish, simply using the verb olla (to be) along with a profession in the essive case naturally implies working in that job. You don't necessarily need to add a verb like työskennellä (to work) to get the point across.
Why does the essive ending use an "a" (-na) instead of an "ä" (-nä)?
This is a quick refresher on vowel harmony! The word tarjoilija contains the back vowels a and o. Because of this, the ending must also use the back vowel a, making it -na. If the root word only had front vowels (like y, ä, ö) and neutral vowels (i, e), it would take -nä.
Can I leave out the word "sinä" in this sentence?
Yes, you can! You could just say Missä olit tarjoilijana? because the verb form olit already tells us that the subject is "you" (singular). Including sinä is grammatically correct but usually just adds a little bit of emphasis or clarifies who you are talking to.