Breakdown of Opettaja on hyvin lempeä ja ymmärtäväinen opiskelijoille.
olla
to be
ja
and
opettaja
teacher
opiskelija
student
Questions & Answers about Opettaja on hyvin lempeä ja ymmärtäväinen opiskelijoille.
Why do we use the allative case (opiskelijoille) instead of something like the illative?
Adjectives that express a way of behaving or a personal attitude towards someone require the target person to be in the allative case (-lle). Because the teacher is being lempeä (gentle) and ymmärtäväinen (understanding) towards them, the students take the allative ending.
What is the purpose of the -väinen suffix in ymmärtäväinen?
The suffix -väinen creates adjectives that describe a permanent personality trait or tendency. While the active participle ymmärtävä just means "understanding" (as an action happening right now), ymmärtäväinen emphasizes that being understanding is a built-in character trait of the teacher.
As a quick refresher, why does the final 'a' in opiskelija turn into an 'o' in opiskelijoille?
In Finnish plural stems, nouns ending in -ija or -ijä (which usually indicate a person doing an action) change their final -a/-ä to -o/-ö before the plural -i- is added. So, opiskelija + plural -i- + allative -lle becomes opiskelijoille.
In this sentence, hyvin translates to "very". Is that its primary meaning?