Breakdown of Me seisoimme ahtaassa hississä yhden tunnin.
me
we
seisoa
to stand
yksi
one
tunti
hour
hissi
elevator
ahdas
cramped
Questions & Answers about Me seisoimme ahtaassa hississä yhden tunnin.
Why is 'for one hour' translated as yhden tunnin, which looks like the genitive case?
This is the core rule for time duration! When you express how long an action takes, Finnish uses the 'accusative of time,' which follows the exact same case rules as total objects. Because this sentence has a normal subject (Me), the duration takes the -n ending, making it look exactly like the genitive case.
Why does the adjective ahdas (cramped) change so much to become ahtaassa?
Words ending in -as or -äs have a stem that ends in a double vowel and undergo reverse consonant gradation. The weak d in the dictionary form ahdas strengthens to a t in the stem ahtaa-. Then, you simply add the inessive ending -ssa to match the case of the noun it describes.
Why does the word for elevator (hissi) take the -ssä ending here?
The ending -ssä is the inessive case, which generally means 'in' or 'inside'. Because an elevator is a clearly enclosed space, Finnish treats it as something you are inside of. Remember that adjectives must agree with their nouns, which is why both words have the 'in' ending: ahtaassa hississä.
Is the pronoun Me required here, or could I just start the sentence with Seisoimme?
You can absolutely drop Me. In Finnish, first and second person pronouns (minä, sinä, me, te) can be omitted because the verb ending (in this case, -mme) already makes it completely clear who the subject is. Including Me here just adds a little bit of emphasis.
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