Opettaja kuuntelee meitä kärsivällisesti.

The teacher listens to us patiently.

Breakdown of Opettaja kuuntelee meitä kärsivällisesti.

• kuunnella: to listen
• opettaja: the teacher
• meitä: us
• kärsivällisesti: patiently

Questions & Answers about Opettaja kuuntelee meitä kärsivällisesti.

Why is it meitä and not me?

Meitä is the partitive form of me (we/us).

The verb kuunnella (to listen) always takes its object in the partitive case, so you must say:

• Opettaja kuuntelee meitä. = The teacher listens to us.

Using basic nominative me here would be grammatically wrong. Many Finnish verbs “force” the object into the partitive; kuunnella is one of them.

What grammatical case is meitä, exactly?

Meitä is the partitive plural of the first person pronoun:

• nominative: me (we)
• partitive: meitä (us, in the partitive case)

Other partitive pronouns:

• minua – of me
• sinua – of you (singular)
• häntä – of him/her
• meitä – of us
• teitä – of you (plural/formal)
• heitä – of them

In this sentence, meitä functions as the object of kuuntelee.

Why does kuunnella take the partitive? In English “listen” just takes “us”.

In Finnish, kuunnella (to listen) is one of those verbs that inherently require the partitive for their object, regardless of whether the action feels “complete” or not.

So you say:

• Opettaja kuuntelee meitä. – The teacher listens to us / is listening to us.

You never say ✗ Opettaja kuuntelee meidät.

This is similar to other verbs that “like” the partitive, such as odottaa (to wait for):
Odotan sinua. – I’m waiting for you. (also partitive)

Why is it kuuntelee and not kuunnella in the sentence?

Kuunnella is the dictionary (infinitive) form: “to listen”.

In a real sentence you must conjugate the verb. Here the subject is opettaja (teacher), which is third person singular, so kuunnella becomes:

• hän kuuntelee – he/she listens

Therefore:

• Opettaja kuuntelee… – The teacher listens / is listening…

What tense is kuuntelee? Does it mean “listens” or “is listening”?

Kuuntelee is present tense. Finnish present tense usually covers:

• English simple present: The teacher listens to us.
• English present continuous: The teacher is listening to us.

Context decides which English translation fits better. There is no separate “-ing” form in Finnish.

Why does kuunnella become kuuntelee? Where did the -te- come from?

Kuunnella is a type 3 verb. The stem used for conjugation is kuuntele-.

For hän (he/she) form:

• stem kuuntele-
  • ending -e → kuuntelee

Full present conjugation:

• minä kuuntelen
• sinä kuuntelet
• hän kuuntelee
• me kuuntelemme
• te kuuntelette
• he kuuntelevat

So kuuntelee is the regular third person singular form from the stem kuuntele-.

Why is there no word for “the” in opettaja? Shouldn’t it be “the teacher”?

Finnish has no articles at all—no a/an and no the.

The bare noun opettaja can mean:

• a teacher
• the teacher

Context decides whether English needs a or the. Here, natural English is The teacher listens to us patiently.

Can the word order change? For example, can I say Opettaja kärsivällisesti kuuntelee meitä?

Yes, Finnish word order is more flexible than English. All of these are grammatical:

• Opettaja kuuntelee meitä kärsivällisesti.
• Opettaja kuuntelee kärsivällisesti meitä.
• Opettaja kärsivällisesti kuuntelee meitä.

The default neutral order is usually:

Subject – Verb – Object – Adverb
Opettaja kuuntelee meitä kärsivällisesti.

Moving words changes the emphasis slightly, but the basic meaning stays the same.

What does kärsivällisesti literally mean, and how is it formed?

The adjective is kärsivällinen = patient.

To form an adverb (patiently), Finnish typically adds -sti to the -nen adjective stem:

• kärsivällinen → stem: kärsivälli- → kärsivällisesti = patiently

So kärsivällisesti is simply “in a patient way” → “patiently”.

Why is the adverb kärsivällisesti at the end? Could it be somewhere else?

The most neutral position for an adverb of manner (how?) is usually near the end of the sentence:

• Opettaja kuuntelee meitä kärsivällisesti.

But it can move:

• Opettaja kuuntelee kärsivällisesti meitä.
• Opettaja kärsivällisesti kuuntelee meitä.

End position feels natural and unmarked. Moving it earlier usually adds a slight emphasis on how the teacher listens.

Could I leave out opettaja and just say Kuuntelee meitä kärsivällisesti?

Not normally.

In Finnish, you can often drop personal pronouns (minä, sinä, etc.) because the verb ending shows who is doing the action, e.g.:

• (Minä) kuuntelen.

But opettaja is a noun, not a pronoun. If you remove it, kuuntelee only tells “someone (he/she) listens”, without saying who.

Kuuntelee meitä kärsivällisesti. would only make sense in a very specific context (e.g. continuing from the previous sentence where the subject is crystal-clear).

What is the difference between kuunnella and kuulla?

They are two different verbs:

• kuunnella = to listen (active, intentional)

  • Opettaja kuuntelee meitä. – The teacher listens to us.

• kuulla = to hear (perceive sound)

  • Opettaja kuulee meidät. – The teacher hears us.

Also note the case:

• kuunnella
  • partitive: meitä
• kuulla can take meidät (accusative) when the object is “whole” or completely affected.

How would I say “The teacher is listening to me” and “The teacher listens to me” in Finnish?

Both English sentences are usually:

• Opettaja kuuntelee minua.

Finnish uses the same present form kuuntelee for both simple and continuous, and minua is the partitive of minä:

• minä → minua (partitive)
• sinä → sinua
• hän → häntä
• me → meitä, etc.

Context tells whether you mean “is listening” (right now) or “listens” (generally).