Log inSign up

Presidentin uusi elämäkerta on tekeillä.

Presidentin uusi elämäkerta on tekeillä.
The president's new biography is in the making.
From Lesson 348:Ongoing processes (-eilla / -eillään)·Finnish

Breakdown of Presidentin uusi elämäkerta on tekeillä.

olla
to be
uusi
new
presidentti
president
tekeillä
in the making
elämäkerta
the biography

Questions & Answers about Presidentin uusi elämäkerta on tekeillä.

The lesson says these ongoing process words take a possessive suffix. Why doesn't tekeillä have one here?
While words like meneillään (going on) usually take a possessive suffix, tekeillä is very commonly used without one when referring to a general state of a subject being "in the works" or "under construction".
How exactly is the word tekeillä formed?
It is formed from the verb tehdä (to do / to make). It uses the stem teke- combined with the plural adessive ending -illä. Literally, it means something like "at the makings", which Finnish uses to indicate an ongoing process.
Could I just use the passive and say Presidentin uutta elämäkertaa tehdään?
Yes, you absolutely can. The passive tehdään focuses on the ongoing action currently being done by unnamed people, while the structure on tekeillä focuses more on the current state of the project being "in the works".
What is the literal meaning behind the compound word elämäkerta?
It is a compound of elämä (life) and kerta (time). In older Finnish, kerta also meant a tale, narrative, or account, which is how this combination came to mean "biography".

Learn Presidentin uusi elämäkerta on tekeillä and more in Finnish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Finnish →