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Questions & Answers about Tarkkailen pöllöä kiikareilla.
Since this lesson is about the -va/-vä participle, could I say "Olen tarkkaileva pöllöä" to mean "I am observing the owl"?
No, that's a common trap for English speakers! In Finnish, you don't use the verb olla (to be) plus a participle to form a continuous tense. The standard present tense tarkkailen already means both "I observe" and "I am observing". The active present participle is mostly used as an adjective, for example: tarkkaileva pöllö (the observing owl).
Why is pöllöä in the partitive case here?
The verb tarkkailla (to observe/watch) describes an ongoing, continuous action rather than a completed one. Because you are in the middle of observing the owl and haven't "finished" the action, the object requires the partitive case (pöllöä).
How does kiikareilla translate to "with binoculars"? Where is the word for "with"?
In Finnish, you usually don't use a separate preposition for "with" when talking about an instrument or tool. Instead, you use the adessive case. Adding the suffix -lla or -llä to the noun conveys that you are doing the action "by means of" or "using" that tool.