Breakdown of Työntekijät työskentelevät tehtaassa vuoroittain.
tehdas
factory
työskennellä
to work
työntekijä
the employee
vuoroittain
in turns
Questions & Answers about Työntekijät työskentelevät tehtaassa vuoroittain.
How is the word vuoroittain formed and what exactly does the -ittain ending do?
The base word is vuoro (shift or turn). To add the distributive suffix -ttain, you first put the word into its plural stem by adding -i-, resulting in vuoroittain. This suffix expresses how an action is distributed or arranged, so here it means "in shifts" or "shift by shift".
Why is there a "t" in työskentelevät when the dictionary form is työskennellä?
Työskennellä is a Type 3 verb, which means its dictionary form has the "weak" consonant grade (nn). When you conjugate it to form the present tense stem (työskentele-), it flips to the "strong" grade, changing the nn to nt.
Why does tehdas (factory) change to tehtaassa in the inessive case?
Words ending in -as or -äs build their stems by changing the final s to a double vowel (aa or ää). In addition, tehdas undergoes consonant gradation where the weak hd in the basic form becomes a strong ht in the stem. So, tehdas becomes the stem tehtaa-, to which you add the -ssa ending.
What are the parts of the compound word työntekijät?
It breaks down into työn (the genitive form of työ, meaning "of work") and tekijät (the plural of tekijä, meaning "makers" or "doers"). Literally, it means "the makers of work", which translates to "employees".