Learn Hardcore Finnish: Meidän toimialallamme työaika on joustava, mutta joskus teemme iltaisin ylityötä. - In our sector the working hours are flexible, but sometimes we do overtime in the evenings.

Meidän toimialallamme työaika on joustava, mutta joskus teemme iltaisin ylityötä.

In our sector the working hours are flexible, but sometimes we do overtime in the evenings.

Breakdown of Meidän toimialallamme työaika on joustava, mutta joskus teemme iltaisin ylityötä.

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Questions & Answers about Meidän toimialallamme työaika on joustava, mutta joskus teemme iltaisin ylityötä.

What does Meidän toimialallamme literally mean, and how is the word built up grammatically?

Meidän toimialallamme is usually translated as “in our field / in our industry”, but literally it’s more like “on our line of business”.

Breakdown:

meidän = our (genitive of me = we)
toimiala = field, sector, line of business
-lla = adessive case ending (typically on / at something)
-mme = our as a possessive suffix

So:

toimialallamme = toimiala
- -lla
  - -mme
    → “on our field / on our line of business”

Finnish often uses the adessive (-lla/-llä) with this word:

tällä toimialalla = in this line of business
omalla alallani = in my field

Even though English says “in our field”, Finnish conceptualizes it more like “on our field” with -lla.

Why do we have both Meidän and the possessive suffix -mme in toimialallamme? Isn’t that double marking?

Yes, the possession is marked twice:

Meidän = our
toimiala-lla-mme = on our field (possessive suffix -mme)

In modern spoken and written Finnish, you can:

Use both for clarity or emphasis (very common in neutral style):
- Meidän toimialallamme työaika on joustava.
Drop the independent pronoun and just use the suffix:
- Toimialallamme työaika on joustava.
  → Still clearly means “In our field…”

Using both is not wrong or redundant; it’s stylistically normal.
Leaving out meidän makes the sentence a bit more compact and is also typical.

Why is toimialallamme in the -lla case and not toimialassamme with -ssa (inessive, “in”)?

Both -lla (adessive) and -ssa (inessive) can mean something like “in” in English, but they’re used with different idioms.

With ala / toimiala (“field, sector”) Finnish typically uses -lla:

tällä alalla = in this field
IT-alalla = in IT
omalla toimialallani = in my sector

Toimialassamme would sound odd; it suggests being literally inside some physical area/container, which doesn’t fit the idiomatic use.

So toimialalla is the fixed, idiomatic way to say “in (this) field / industry”.

Why is it työaika on joustava and not työaika on joustavaa?

Työaika on joustava uses nominative joustava because it’s a normal predicate adjective describing a definite thing:

työaika = (the) working time / working hours
on joustava = is flexible

Pattern:
[Nominative subject] + on + [nominative adjective]

Examples:

Työ on raskas. = The work is hard.
Kurssi on helppo. = The course is easy.
Työaika on joustava. = Working hours are flexible.

Joustavaa (partitive) would be used if you were talking about some amount or type of flexibility in a more abstract or incomplete sense, often with different structures, but in a straightforward “X is Y (adjective)” sentence, Finnish normally uses nominative.

What exactly is joustava here—an adjective or something special?

Joustava here is a regular adjective meaning “flexible”.

joustaa = to bend, to give way, to be flexible
joustava = flexible (adjective form)

So:

työaika on joustava = “working time is flexible”

It agrees in number and case with työaika:

singular nominative työaika → singular nominative joustava
if it were plural:
- Työajat ovat joustavat. = The working hours are flexible.

Why is mutta used here and not vaan?

Mutta and vaan can both translate as “but”, but they’re used differently.

mutta = general contrast, “but” in most cases
vaan = “but rather / but instead”, and it normally follows a negation

In the sentence there is no negation before mutta:

…työaika on joustava, mutta joskus teemme iltaisin ylityötä.
= “…working hours are flexible, but sometimes we do overtime in the evenings.”

If you had a negation, you would use vaan:

Työaika ei ole aina joustava, vaan joskus hyvin tiukka.
= Working hours are not always flexible, but sometimes very strict instead.

So mutta is correct here because there is no negative clause before it.

What does teemme come from, and why not use työskentelemme?

Teemme is the 1st person plural of the verb tehdä = to do, to make.

Conjugation (present tense):

minä teen
sinä teet
hän tekee
me teemme
te teette
he tekevät

The expression tehdä ylityötä is a fixed collocation in Finnish meaning “to do overtime”.

tehdä ylityötä = do overtime
Me teemme usein ylityötä. = We often do overtime.

Työskennellä = to work (be at work) is more general:

Työskentelemme toimistossa. = We work in an office.

You wouldn’t normally say työskentelemme ylityötä; the idiomatic choice is tehdä ylityötä.

What does iltaisin mean exactly, and what is that form?

Iltaisin means “in the evenings / during evenings (generally)”.

Formally, it’s a distributive form (historically related to plural essive) of ilta (evening). It expresses habitual, repeated time:

iltaisin = in the evenings (habitually)
aamuisin = in the mornings
öisin = at night(s)
viikonloppuisin = on weekends

So joskus teemme iltaisin ylityötä =
“sometimes we do overtime in the evenings (as a general habit, on some evenings)”, not necessarily this one specific evening.

Why is ylityötä in the partitive case and not ylityö or ylityöt?

Ylityötä is partitive singular of ylityö (“overtime work”).

Partitive here expresses:

an indefinite amount (some amount of overtime)
ongoing / non-bounded activity

In English you also treat overtime like a mass noun:

“We do some overtime.”
“We sometimes work overtime.”

Finnish mirrors that with partitive:

teemme ylityötä = we do (some) overtime
teimme paljon ylityötä = we did a lot of overtime

If you said teemme ylityön, it would sound like “we do the overtime (one specific overtime task / shift)”, which is a different, more concrete meaning.

Can the word order be changed? For example, Joskus teemme ylityötä iltaisin or Teemme joskus iltaisin ylityötä?

Yes, Finnish word order is fairly flexible. These are all grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

Meidän toimialallamme työaika on joustava, mutta joskus teemme iltaisin ylityötä.
→ neutral, focus on contrast after mutta.
… mutta joskus iltaisin teemme ylityötä.
→ emphasizes evenings a bit more.
… mutta teemme joskus iltaisin ylityötä.
→ groups the time adverbials more closely with the verb.
… mutta joskus teemme ylityötä iltaisin.
→ totally fine, slightly different rhythm.

In spoken Finnish, people often move joskus and iltaisin around for rhythm or emphasis, but the basic meaning stays the same.

Could you say Meidän alallamme instead of Meidän toimialallamme? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say Meidän alallamme, and it’s very natural. Both mean roughly “in our field / in our line of work”.

Subtle nuance:

ala = field, line of work, area (more general)
toimiala = sector / line of business (a bit more business- or industry-oriented)

So:

Meidän alallamme työaika on joustava…
= In our field, working hours are flexible…
Meidän toimialallamme työaika on joustava…
= In our sector/industry, working hours are flexible…

In many contexts they can be used interchangeably; ala is slightly more general and common in everyday speech.