Breakdown of Satuin salakuuntelemaan pomoa.
pomo
boss
sattua
to happen (by chance)
salakuunnella
to eavesdrop
Questions & Answers about Satuin salakuuntelemaan pomoa.
How does the verb sattua work here to mean 'happened to'?
When sattua means 'to happen to do something by chance', it requires the second verb to be in the -maan/-mään form (the 3rd infinitive illative). So we conjugate sattua to satuin (I happened to) and attach salakuuntelemaan.
Why does the double 'n' in salakuunnella change to 'nt' in salakuuntelemaan?
Kuunnella (and therefore salakuunnella) is a Type 3 verb. These verbs undergo reverse consonant gradation. The dictionary form has the weak grade (nn), but when we build the stem to add the -maan ending, it switches to the strong grade (nt), giving us the stem salakuuntele-.
Why is the object pomoa in the partitive case?
How is the word salakuunnella (to eavesdrop) formed?
It is a compound word made of the prefix sala- (secret) and kuunnella (to listen). You will see sala- in many other Finnish words related to secrecy or stealth, such as salasana (password), salapoliisi (detective), and salaisuus (a secret).
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