Learn Hardcore Finnish: Opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä kärsivällisesti. - The teacher listens to the students’ questions patiently.

Using opiskelijat (nominative) here would be ungrammatical in this structure, because you need the genitive form to say “students’ questions”, not just “the students questions”.

What form is kysymyksiä, and why isn’t it just kysymykset?

Kysymyksiä is the partitive plural of kysymys (“question”).

singular nominative: kysymys
plural nominative: kysymykset
plural partitive: kysymyksiä

The -iä ending is a common partitive plural marker.

In this sentence, kysymyksiä functions as the object of kuuntelee (“listens to”), and kuunnella (to listen) very often takes a partitive object, especially when:

the amount is not specified (“questions” in general, some questions)
the action is ongoing or incomplete

So kysymyksiä fits the idea “(some) questions” that the teacher is listening to, rather than a fully bounded set like “all the questions” (kysymykset).

Why is the object in the partitive (kysymyksiä) and not in a total object form like kysymykset?

Two main reasons:

Verb valency:
The verb kuunnella (“to listen”) prefers a partitive object. This is a lexical property of the verb, similar to how English needs a preposition (listen *to something*).
Aspect / meaning:
The partitive often signals:
- an unbounded or incomplete event
- an indefinite amount (some, not all, not clearly delimited)

So opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä suggests:

the teacher is listening to (some) questions, not necessarily a fixed, complete list.

With a total object, e.g. opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymykset, the meaning would tend toward:

the teacher listens to the questions as a whole set, possibly all of them.
That can be possible in other contexts, but the partitive is the natural, neutral choice here.

Could we say kysymystä (singular partitive) instead of kysymyksiä?

You could grammatically say:

Opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymystä.

but it would usually mean the teacher is listening to one particular question (seen as a single, ongoing thing—maybe a long or complicated question).

With kysymyksiä (plural partitive), the idea is:

the teacher is listening to several questions, an unspecified number.

So:

kysymystä = one question, in a partitive/ongoing sense
kysymyksiä = more than one question, indefinite amount

Why is the verb kuuntelee singular when “students” sounds plural?

The subject of the sentence is opettaja (“teacher”), which is singular. The students are not the subject; they appear inside the object phrase (opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä = “students’ questions”).

Finnish verb agreement works like this:

Opettaja kuuntelee… = The teacher listens… (3rd person singular)
Opettajat kuuntelevat… = The teachers listen… (3rd person plural)

So kuuntelee correctly agrees with opettaja, not with opiskelijat/opiskelijoiden.

Where does the t in kuuntelee come from? The dictionary form is kuunnella.

The infinitive is kuunnella (“to listen”), but the present-tense stem is kuuntele-:

minä kuuntelen
sinä kuuntelet
hän kuuntelee
me kuuntelemme, etc.

The change from kuunnella → kuuntele- is a case of stem alternation (a kind of consonant change). You can think of it as something to memorize as part of this verb’s pattern, much like irregular verbs in English (e.g. go → went). Many Finnish verbs have similar alternations between the dictionary form and the finite forms.

What is the difference between kuunnella and kuulla?

Both relate to hearing, but:

kuulla = to hear (perception happens, often passively)
- Kuulin äänen. = I heard a sound.
kuunnella = to listen (to) (active, intentional)
- Kuuntelin ääntä. = I listened to the sound.

In this sentence, the teacher is actively listening to the questions, so kuunnella/kuuntelee is the natural verb, not kuulla.

Why isn’t there a word for “to” as in “listen to the students’ questions”?

English needs a preposition (listen to), but Finnish expresses this relationship mainly by:

choosing the right verb (here kuunnella), and
putting the object in the appropriate case (here, partitive: kysymyksiä).

So where English says:

“listen to questions”

Finnish simply says:

kuunnella kysymyksiä

The “to” idea is built into the verb + case combination, not a separate preposition.

Why is kärsivällisesti used instead of the adjective kärsivällinen?

Kärsivällisesti is an adverb, describing how the teacher listens (patiently). Finnish often forms adverbs from adjectives by adding -sti:

kärsivällinen (patient, adj.) → kärsivällisesti (patiently)
nopea (fast) → nopeasti (quickly)
hiljainen (quiet) → hiljaisesti / hiljaa (quietly; hiljaa is more common)

Using the adjective kärsivällinen here (opettaja kuuntelee… kärsivällinen) would be ungrammatical; you need the adverbial form kärsivällisesti to modify the verb kuuntelee.

Can the word order be changed, for example: Opettaja kärsivällisesti kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä?

Yes, that is grammatically correct. Finnish word order is quite flexible. Both:

Opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä kärsivällisesti.
Opettaja kärsivällisesti kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä.

are acceptable.

The differences are about emphasis and rhythm:

original: neutral focus on the action listens to students’ questions, with kärsivällisesti added at the end
reordered: puts a bit more emphasis on kärsivällisesti (how the listening happens) by moving it earlier

But both mean essentially the same thing.

Could we say Opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoita kärsivällisesti instead? What changes?

Yes, you can say:

Opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoita kärsivällisesti.

This changes the meaning slightly:

opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä = the students’ questions (the questions are the object)
opiskelijoita (partitive plural) = the students themselves are the object

So:

Opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä kärsivällisesti.
→ The teacher patiently listens to the students’ questions.
Opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoita kärsivällisesti.
→ The teacher patiently listens to the students (what they say, talk about, etc., not specifically framed as “questions”).

Why is there no word for “the” as in “the teacher” or “the students’ questions”?

Finnish has no articles (no words corresponding to “a/an” or “the”). Definiteness and specificity are usually understood from:

context
word order and emphasis
sometimes case and other grammar

So:

Opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä kärsivällisesti.

can be translated depending on context as:

The teacher listens to the students’ questions patiently.
A teacher listens to students’ questions patiently.

Finnish leaves that “a/the” distinction to context, not to a separate word.

Could we use a possessive suffix like kysymyksiään instead of just kysymyksiä?

You could say:

Opettaja kuuntelee opiskelijoiden kysymyksiään kärsivällisesti.

Here kysymyksiään = their (own) questions (questions belonging to opiskelijat). The -än is a 3rd-person possessive suffix referring back to opiskelijoiden.

Nuances:

opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä
= the students’ questions (possession already clear from opiskelijoiden)
opiskelijoiden kysymyksiään
= often adds a slightly more emphatic or literary feel, highlighting “their own questions”

In everyday speech, opiskelijoiden kysymyksiä (without the suffix) is more common and perfectly clear, so that’s what you usually see.