Breakdown of Hän istuu lippis päässä, kun kokous on meneillään.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
istua
to sit
pää
head
kokous
meeting (formal)
kun
when (conjunction)
meneillään
underway
lippis
cap
Questions & Answers about Hän istuu lippis päässä, kun kokous on meneillään.
Why is it lippis päässä (cap in head) instead of using a word for 'with', like lippiksen kanssa?
In Finnish, conditions or states relating to wearing something or body postures are often expressed with an absolute phrase of state. You just put the item in the nominative (lippis) and the body part in a local case (päässä). If you said lippiksen kanssa, it would sound like the cap is a companion sitting next to him!
Could I express this by saying hän istuu ja pitää lippistä päässä?
You could, but it sounds clunky. The absolute phrase lippis päässä elegantly modifies the main verb istuu to describe how he is sitting. This is a hallmark of natural Finnish style: packing descriptive information into these concise, noun-based phrases rather than piling up secondary verbs like pitää (to wear/keep).
If he were wearing gloves on both hands, would the body part in the absolute phrase be plural?
No, Finnish strongly prefers the singular for the body part in these expressions, even if the item is plural or logically covers two limbs. For example, 'with gloves on his hands' is hanskat kädessä (literally: gloves in hand), not käsissä. Here, päässä is singular, which follows the same standard pattern.
What exactly is the form of meneillään, and can I use this structure for other verbs?
Meneillään means 'ongoing' or 'in progress'. It is a fixed adverbial form derived from mennä (to go). While it looks like it has a third-person possessive suffix (-ään), it is treated as a set phrase with the verb olla (olla meneillään). You cannot freely attach this ending to just any verb; it is a fixed expression you should memorize for events that are currently under way.
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