Isällä on tapana mutista, kun hän lukee uutisia.
Dad has a habit of muttering when he reads the news.
Breakdown of Isällä on tapana mutista, kun hän lukee uutisia.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
lukea
to read
isä
father
kun
when (conjunction)
tapa
habit
uutinen
news
mutista
to mutter
Questions & Answers about Isällä on tapana mutista, kun hän lukee uutisia.
Why do we use the essive case tapana here instead of just the basic word tapa?
The construction uses the essive case ending -na to express a role or state. Literally, it translates to "Dad has [it] as a habit". The structure [Adessive] + on tapana is the standard way to say someone has a habit of doing something.
What form does the action verb take after on tapana?
It always takes the first infinitive, which is the dictionary form of the verb. Here, that is mutista (to mutter). You don't need to conjugate it to match the subject, because the conjugated verb in the sentence is on.
Why is uutisia in the partitive plural?
The word uutinen (news) is typically used in the plural when referring to the news in general. Because reading is an ongoing, incomplete action here (he is in the middle of reading them when he mutters), the object must be in the partitive case, resulting in the partitive plural uutisia.
How does on tapana mutista differ in meaning from just saying hän yleensä mutisee (he usually mutters)?
While both describe repeated actions, on tapana emphasizes that this is a specific personal quirk, custom, or ingrained routine. Using an adverb like yleensä (usually) would just state the frequency of the action without that "habitual quirk" nuance.
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