Breakdown of Työntekijöillä on usein ongelmia kaapeleita asennettaessa.
olla
to be
usein
often
ongelma
problem
työntekijä
the employee
kaapeli
cable
asentaa
to install
Questions & Answers about Työntekijöillä on usein ongelmia kaapeleita asennettaessa.
What exactly is asennettaessa and how is it formed?
This is the passive temporal construction (temporaalirakenne) of the verb asentaa (to install). It translates to 'when being installed'. To form it, take the standard present passive form (asennetaan), drop the final -an or -än, and add -essa or -essä. This gives you asennettaessa.
Could I say this using a normal kun clause instead of asennettaessa?
Yes! The temporal construction is just a more compact, slightly more written-style way to say a kun (when) clause. You could rewrite the end of the sentence as ...kun kaapeleita asennetaan (when cables are being installed) and the meaning would be exactly the same.
Why is kaapeleita in the partitive plural here?
Kaapeleita is the object of the installing action. In a temporal construction, the object follows standard object rules. Because the installing is an ongoing or repeated process rather than a single completed action, the partitive plural is used.
Why is the verb on singular when both the workers (työntekijöillä) and the problems (ongelmia) are plural?
In Finnish, the 'to have' construction always uses the 3rd person singular verb on, regardless of how many people have something or how many things they have. Literally, the sentence structure is: On the workers is often problems.
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