Breakdown of Mies avaa radion ruuvimeisselillä.
mies
man
avata
to open
radio
radio
ruuvimeisseli
the screwdriver
Questions & Answers about Mies avaa radion ruuvimeisselillä.
Why does ruuvimeisseli end in -llä instead of having a separate word for "with"?
In Finnish, tools and instruments are expressed using the Adessive case (-lla/-llä) attached directly to the noun. Instead of using a preposition like "with", you add -llä to ruuvimeisseli to mean "by means of" or "using a screwdriver".
Why does ruuvimeisselillä take the front vowel ending -llä instead of -lla?
This is a compound word made of ruuvi (screw) and meisseli (chisel/driver). Vowel harmony in compound words is always determined by the final word in the compound. Since meisseli only contains front/neutral vowels (e, i) and no back vowels (a, o, u), it takes the front vowel ending -llä.
Why is the radio in the form radion with an -n at the end?
This is the accusative object (which looks identical to the genitive case here). Because the man is completely opening the radio, it takes this total object form. If the action were ongoing or incomplete (e.g., "The man is trying to open the radio"), it would be in the partitive case: radiota.
How do we get the verb avaa from the dictionary form avata?
Avata (to open) is a type 4 verb. To conjugate it in the third person singular (for mies), you drop the -ta to get the stem ava-, and then double the final vowel, which gives us avaa.
Learn Mies avaa radion ruuvimeisselillä and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free