Breakdown of Tapaaminen alkaa hetken päästä.
alkaa
to start
tapaaminen
meeting
päästä
to get to, to reach
hetki
moment
Questions & Answers about Tapaaminen alkaa hetken päästä.
Why is hetki (moment) written as hetken here?
In the phrase hetken päästä (in a moment), the word päästä acts as a postposition (like an English preposition, but it comes after the noun). Most Finnish postpositions require the word before them to be in the genitive case. That is why hetki gets the -n ending to become hetken.
I learned that päästä is a verb meaning "to get to" or "to be able to". What does it mean here?
You are right that päästä is a common verb! However, when talking about time, päästä is also used as a postposition meaning "in" or "after" a certain amount of time. So hetken päästä simply means "in a moment".
Can I use päästä to say something starts "in an hour" or "in five minutes"?
Yes! This is the standard way to answer "mihin aikaan?" (what time?) when something is happening in the future. You just put the amount of time in the genitive case and add päästä. For example, "in an hour" is tunnin päästä and "in five minutes" is viiden minuutin päästä.
Is the noun tapaaminen (meeting) related to the verb tavata (to meet)?
Yes! By adding the -minen ending to a verb's stem, Finnish turns an action into a noun. This is very similar to adding "-ing" in English to turn the verb "to meet" into the noun "a meeting".
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