Questions & Answers about Minä haluan olla kokkina kesällä.
Why is the word for cook written as kokkina?
This uses the essive case, which is formed by adding -na or -nä to the end of a word. It is used to describe a temporary role, state, or position. Here, kokkina literally means "as a cook".
The translation says "work as a cook", but isn't olla just the verb "to be"?
Yes, olla means "to be". While Finnish does have a verb for "to work" (työskennellä), it is much more common and natural to use olla combined with the essive case (-na/-nä) when talking about holding a job or position. Literally, the sentence is saying "I want to be as a cook".
Why does "in the summer" use the -llä ending instead of an "in" ending like -ssä?
In Finnish, seasons and parts of the day use the adessive case (-lla or -llä) to express when something happens. So, kesä (summer) becomes kesällä (in the summer / during the summer).
Why does the ending on kokkina use an "a" but the ending on kesällä uses an "ä"?