Breakdown of Nämä ovat osa-aikaiset työntekijät.
olla
to be
nämä
these
työntekijä
the employee
osa-aikainen
part-time
Questions & Answers about Nämä ovat osa-aikaiset työntekijät.
Why is it osa-aikaiset työntekijät (nominative plural) instead of osa-aikaisia työntekijöitä (partitive plural)?
In Finnish, using the nominative plural here makes the group definite, translating to "the part-time employees" (a specific, complete group). If we used the partitive plural (Nämä ovat osa-aikaisia työntekijöitä), it would mean "These are part-time employees" (an indefinite group).
Since this lesson is about the tulla (to become) construction, how would I say "These will become the part-time employees"?
You use the elative case for the starting state (näistä) and the nominative for the result. The sentence becomes Näistä tulee osa-aikaiset työntekijät. (Literally: Out of these will come the part-time employees).
How is the adjective osa-aikaiset formed?
It is a compound word. Osa means "part" and aika means "time". Adding the suffix -inen turns it into the adjective osa-aikainen (part-time). Because it describes a plural noun in the nominative case, the -inen ending changes to -iset to match.
Why does the word työntekijät have an n in the middle?
Työntekijä (employee or worker) is a compound word made of työ (work) and tekijä (doer or maker). The first part is in the genitive case (työn, meaning "of work"), so it literally translates to "doer of work". The standard plural ending -t is added to the end to make työntekijät.
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