Questions & Answers about He suutelivat toisiaan asemalla.
The current lesson teaches the 'toinen toistaan' structure. Why does this sentence use 'toisiaan' instead?
Toisiaan is the standard, everyday way to say 'each other' in Finnish. The distributive structure toinen toistaan (literally 'the one the other') taught in this lesson is more formal and literary. While you could technically say he suutelivat toinen toistaan, using toisiaan is much more natural for this everyday context.
How exactly is the word 'toisiaan' formed from 'toinen'?
It is formed by taking the plural partitive of toinen, which is toisia, and adding the third-person possessive suffix -an. The partitive case is used here because the verb suudella (to kiss) always requires a partitive object.
Why does the verb 'suudella' have a 't' instead of a 'd' in 'suutelivat'?
Suudella is a Type 3 verb, which means it undergoes reverse consonant gradation. The dictionary form has the weak grade d, but when you conjugate it to create the past tense stem suuteli-, it switches to the strong grade t.
Why is 'asemalla' in the adessive case (-lla) rather than the inessive case (-ssa)?
In Finnish, certain public transit locations conventionally take the outer local cases like the adessive (-lla/llä) rather than the inner ones (-ssa/ssä). You use asemalla (at the station) and pysäkillä (at the stop) because these places are historically treated as open platforms or surfaces rather than enclosed rooms.
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