Breakdown of Hänellä on tekeillään elokuvamainen teos.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
teos
work of art / piece
elokuvamainen
cinematic
Questions & Answers about Hänellä on tekeillään elokuvamainen teos.
How exactly is the word tekeillään built from the verb tehdä?
It uses the verb stem teke-, adds the plural marker -i-, the adessive case -llä, and the third-person possessive suffix -än. This specific plural adessive structure is used to show that a process is currently underway, meaning that the object is currently in the making.
Why does tekeillä have the possessive suffix -än at the end in this sentence?
Because the action is tied to a specific person doing the making (hänellä). If this were a general statement where the maker is unmentioned, you would drop the possessive suffix and just say Elokuvamainen teos on tekeillä. Adding -än ties the active process back to him or her.
What does the suffix -mainen do in the word elokuvamainen?
The suffix -mainen or -mäinen attaches to a noun to create an adjective meaning -like or -esque. Here, it turns the noun elokuva (movie) into the adjective elokuvamainen (movie-like, or cinematic).
Why is teos in the nominative case here instead of the partitive or genitive?
Finnish doesn't have a direct verb for the English concept of having, so it uses the hänellä on structure. Grammatically, the thing possessed (teos) is the subject of the sentence, not the object. Because a work of art is a single, complete, countable thing in this context, it takes the basic nominative case.