Questions & Answers about Ovatko he nyt korjaamassa kattoa?
Why use korjaamassa instead of the normal present tense korjaavat?
The form korjaamassa is the third infinitive inessive (ending in -massa or -mässä). When used with the verb olla (to be), it emphasizes that an action is currently ongoing, very similar to the English continuous tense ('to be doing something' right now).
How is the form korjaamassa built from the dictionary form?
The basic verb is korjata (to repair), which is a Type 4 verb. To find the stem for the third infinitive, you can look at the third-person plural form, korjaavat, and drop the -vat. Then you simply add the ending -massa to the strong stem korjaa-.
Why is the word for roof, katto, written as kattoa here?
Kattoa is in the partitive case. Because the action of repairing is currently ongoing and not yet finished (which is heavily emphasized by the -massa form), the object of the sentence must be in the partitive.
Can you remind me how the question Ovatko is formed?
You take the verb ovat (they are) and attach the question particle -ko. In Finnish, to turn a statement into a yes/no question, you move the main verb to the front of the sentence and add -ko (or -kö depending on vowel harmony) to it.