Breakdown of Ministeri saapuu tänään sihteereineen.
tänään
today
saapua
to arrive
ministeri
minister
sihteeri
secretary
Questions & Answers about Ministeri saapuu tänään sihteereineen.
How exactly is the word sihteereineen built?
It comes from the word sihteeri (secretary). To make the comitative case meaning 'with', you take the plural stem sihteerei-, add the comitative ending -ne, and finally attach a possessive suffix. Here, the possessive suffix is -en (his/her), making sihteereineen.
Since it uses the plural stem sihteerei-, does it definitely mean multiple secretaries?
Not necessarily! A tricky quirk of the comitative case is that it always attaches to the plural stem, even if you only mean one person or thing. So sihteereineen can mean 'with his secretary' OR 'with his secretaries'. You have to rely on context to know for sure.
If the comitative is ambiguous, how would I clearly say 'with his secretary' (singular) in normal conversation?
In everyday spoken Finnish, the comitative case is rarely used. People usually prefer the postposition kanssa (with) instead. You would say sihteerinsä kanssa for one secretary, or sihteeriensä kanssa for multiple. The comitative form sihteereineen sounds quite formal, which is why you usually only see it in official news about people like ministers.
Why does the sentence use saapuu instead of the basic verb tulee?
The verb saapua specifically means 'to arrive', whereas tulla is the more general verb for 'to come'. Using saapuu makes the sentence sound a bit more official and formal, which fits perfectly when talking about a government minister.
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