Breakdown of Laiturilla seisoessani kuuntelin kuulutuksia.
seisoa
to stand
kuunnella
to listen to
laituri
platform
kuulutus
announcement
Questions & Answers about Laiturilla seisoessani kuuntelin kuulutuksia.
How exactly does seisoessani translate to "when standing" or "while I stood"?
This is the active temporal construction. You take the verb seisoa (to stand), change it to the 2nd infinitive inessive form (seisoessa-), and add a possessive suffix. The -ni suffix represents "my" or "I". It literally translates to "in my standing" and replaces the clause kun seisoin (when I stood).
Since it means "while I stood", why isn't there a minun before seisoessani?
In a temporal construction, when the person doing the action is the same as the subject of the main clause (here, "I" am both standing and listening), you drop the genitive pronoun (minun) and just use the possessive suffix (-ni) on the verb.
Why is kuulutuksia in the partitive case here?
The verb kuunnella (to listen to) is a partitive verb, which means it requires its object to be in the partitive case. Because you are listening to multiple announcements, it is in the partitive plural.
How do you form the partitive plural kuulutuksia from its dictionary form?
The dictionary form is kuulutus (announcement). For nouns ending in -us or -ys, the final -s changes to -ks- when adding most endings. This gives the stem kuulutuks-, to which we add the partitive plural ending -ia.
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