Breakdown of Kuuntelimme sekä opettajaa että opiskelijoita avoimin mielin.
opettaja
teacher
opiskelija
student
kuunnella
to listen to
että
that (conjunction)
mieli
mind / opinion (mind, mood)
sekä
both
avoin
open (adjective, attributive)
Questions & Answers about Kuuntelimme sekä opettajaa että opiskelijoita avoimin mielin.
Why is avoimin mielin in the plural instructive case if the English translation says "with an open mind"?
The instructive case, which describes how or with what means an action is done, is almost exclusively used in the plural in Finnish. Even though English naturally uses the singular "with an open mind", Finnish uses the plural form avoimin mielin (literally "with open minds"). It acts as a common fixed expression.
How did avoin (open) and mieli (mind) become avoimin mielin?
To form the instructive, you take the plural stem of the word and add -n. The word mieli has the plural stem mieli-, so adding -n gives mielin. For avoin, the plural stem is avoimi-, which becomes avoimin. Adjectives must agree with the noun in Finnish, so both words take the instructive -n ending.
Why are the objects opettajaa and opiskelijoita in the partitive case?
The verb kuunnella (to listen to) is a partitive verb. This means the person or thing you are listening to must always be in the partitive case, regardless of whether the action is completed or ongoing. Here, opettajaa is the singular partitive, and opiskelijoita is the plural partitive.
How does the phrase sekä ... että work here?
sekä ... että is a paired conjunction that translates to "both ... and". In this sentence, sekä opettajaa että opiskelijoita joins the two partitive objects to mean "both the teacher and the students".
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