Breakdown of Koko henkilöstö on tänään sairauslomalla.
olla
to be
tänään
today
koko
whole
sairausloma
the sick leave
Questions & Answers about Koko henkilöstö on tänään sairauslomalla.
How is the collective noun henkilöstö formed?
It is built from the base word henkilö (person) plus the collective suffix -stö. This suffix turns an individual thing into a group of those things, creating the meaning of staff or personnel. It uses -stö rather than -sto to follow vowel harmony rules, matching the front vowels in henkilö.
Since henkilöstö refers to multiple people, why do we use the singular verb on instead of the plural ovat?
Collective nouns ending in -sto or -stö act as grammatically singular words because they represent one single group. Therefore, the group takes a singular verb like on.
Why doesn't the adjective koko change its ending here?
The word koko (whole or entire) is a special exception among Finnish adjectives because it is completely indeclinable. That means it never takes any case endings, no matter what grammatical role the following noun plays in the sentence.
What case is sairauslomalla in, and why?
It is in the adessive case, shown by the -lla ending. Just like in English where you say you are on holiday or on leave, Finnish uses this outer location case for the compound word sairausloma (sick leave).