Breakdown of Mekaanikot ovat varikolla, ja he ovat tosissaan.
olla
to be
ja
and
he
they
mekaanikko
mechanic
varikko
pit
tosissaan
serious (in earnest)
Questions & Answers about Mekaanikot ovat varikolla, ja he ovat tosissaan.
How does the word tosissaan literally translate, and what is its base word?
The base word is tosi (true). Here it is in the plural inessive case (-i-ssa-) combined with a third-person possessive suffix (-an). Literally it means "in their truths," but Finns use this exact structure as a state adverbial to mean being "serious" or "in earnest" about something.
Would tosissaan change if the subject of the sentence was "I" instead of "they"?
Yes! Because this state adverbial uses a possessive suffix, it must match the subject. If the subject was minä (I), you would use the first-person singular suffix -ni to make tosissani (I am serious). For he (they), the third-person suffix -an is used to make tosissaan.
Why do we use varikolla instead of varikossa if the English translation says "in the pit"?
Many specific places in Finnish conventionally use the outer local cases (-lla for "on" or "at") instead of the inner ones (-ssa for "in"). Varikko (depot, garage, or motorsport pit) is one of those words where you are grammatically "on" it rather than "in" it.
In the second half of the sentence, could we drop the pronoun he and just say "ja ovat tosissaan"?
No, in standard Finnish you must always include the third-person pronouns (hän and he). You can only drop the pronoun for the first and second persons (minä, sinä, me, te) because their unique verb endings are enough to identify the subject.
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