Breakdown of Käytävä, jossa seisomme peräkkäin, on ahdas.
olla
to be
seisoa
to stand
joka
who / which (relative pronoun)
käytävä
corridor
ahdas
cramped
peräkkäin
in a row
Questions & Answers about Käytävä, jossa seisomme peräkkäin, on ahdas.
How is the adverb peräkkäin formed in this sentence?
It comes from the noun perä (rear, back) plus the suffix -kkäin. This suffix creates adverbs of mutual arrangement. While it literally hints at being back-to-back, it translates naturally as 'one behind the other' or 'in a single file line'.
Why do we use jossa here instead of missä to mean 'where' or 'in which'?
jossa is the inessive ('in') form of the relative pronoun joka (which). In standard Finnish, you must use a form of joka to refer back to a noun like käytävä (corridor). In everyday spoken Finnish, it is very common to hear missä used instead, but jossa is the grammatically correct choice for standard written language.
What happens to the adjective ahdas (cramped) if we need to add an ending?
Words ending in -as or -äs have a stem ending in -aa- or -ää-. They also go through inverted consonant gradation, meaning the dictionary form is 'weak' and the stem is 'strong'. For ahdas, the weak d changes to a strong t, making the stem ahtaa-. For example, 'in a cramped corridor' would be ahtaassa käytävässä.
If peräkkäin means standing one behind the other, how would I say we are standing side by side in the corridor?
You would use vierekkäin. It uses the exact same -kkäin suffix you are learning in this lesson, attached to the root of vieri (side).
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