Breakdown of Uusi näytelmä on tekeillä, ja harjoittelemme sitä kolmestaan käsinukeilla.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
ja
and
uusi
new
harjoitella
to practice
näytelmä
the play
tekeillä
in the making
käsinukke
hand puppet
kolmestaan
the three of us / the three of them
Questions & Answers about Uusi näytelmä on tekeillä, ja harjoittelemme sitä kolmestaan käsinukeilla.
How does kolmestaan mean "the three of us", and why doesn't it have a "we" suffix like -mme?
kolmestaan uses the exclusive group size suffix -staan attached to the number kolme. With numbers, this suffix is fixed and does not change to match the grammatical person. It can mean "the three of us," "the three of you," or "the three of them." We know it means "us" here simply because the main verb harjoittelemme establishes that "we" are doing the action.
What kind of word is tekeillä? It looks like it's related to the verb tehdä (to do/make).
Why is the pronoun for "it" in the partitive case (sitä)?
It is the object of the verb harjoitella (to practice). Practicing is viewed as an ongoing, continuous process without a definitive completion point, so it naturally requires its object to be in the partitive case.
Why does "with hand puppets" use the -lla ending in käsinukeilla instead of a separate word for "with"?
While the adessive case (-lla / -llä) is often used for locations (meaning "on"), it is also the standard Finnish way to express the instrument or tool used to perform an action. Here, käsinukeilla literally means "by means of hand puppets" or "using hand puppets."
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