Learn Hardcore Finnish: Avaruusasemalla työskentelevät ihmiset näkevät monta tähdistöä joka yö. - The people working on the space station see many constellations every night.

location “on / at / by” something:
- pöytä → pöydällä = on the table
- asemalla = at the station
sometimes also “with” (having something), but not in this sentence.

So avaruusasemalla is best understood as “at the space station”.

Why does työskentelevät come before ihmiset? Is työskentelevät a normal verb here?

In this sentence, työskentelevät is not a normal finite verb; it’s a present active participle used like an adjective:

työskentelevät ihmiset = people working / who work

So the phrase:

Avaruusasemalla työskentelevät ihmiset = people who work at the space station

This is similar to English “working people” or “people who work”.

Grammatically:

The participle työskentelevät agrees in number and case with the noun:
- singular: työskentelevä ihminen = a person who works
- plural: työskentelevät ihmiset = people who work

You could also express this with a full relative clause:

Ihmiset, jotka työskentelevät avaruusasemalla, näkevät… = People who work at the space station see…

The meaning is the same; the original just uses a more compact, participle-based structure.

What is the basic form of työskentelevät, and how is it built?

The basic (dictionary) form is työskennellä = to work (in the sense of doing a job).

From that verb, we get:

present stem: työskentele-
present active participle: työskentelevä (sg), työskentelevät (pl)

Pattern:

Verb stem + -va / -vä (present active participle)
Then it declines like an adjective and agrees with the noun:
- työskentelevä ihminen (sg)
- työskentelevät ihmiset (pl)

So työskentelevät here is “working / who work”, not “they work” as a main verb.

Why is ihmiset in this form and not ihmisiä?

Ihmiset is the nominative plural of ihminen (person, human).

ihminen = person
ihmiset = (the) people
ihmisiä = partitive plural (some people, people (in an indefinite amount))

Because ihmiset is the subject of the main verb näkevät, it normally appears in nominative plural:

Ihmiset näkevät… = The/These people see…

We would use ihmisiä (partitive) if “people” were:

an object (He sees people = Hän näkee ihmisiä), or
in a “there is/are” type sentence (There are people = Siellä on ihmisiä).

Here, “people who work at the space station” do the seeing, so ihmiset is nominative.

What does näkevät come from, and why isn’t it nähtevat or something closer to the dictionary form?

The dictionary form is nähdä = to see.
Its present tense is irregular and uses a different stem näke-:

minä näen = I see
sinä näet = you see
hän näkee = he / she sees
me näemme = we see
te näette = you (pl) see
he näkevät = they see

So näkevät is:

present tense
3rd person plural
meaning “(they) see”

The stem alternation nähdä → näke- is just an irregular feature of this verb.

Why is it monta tähdistöä and not monta tähdistöä with some plural ending like tähdistöjä?

The word monta (“many”) normally takes the following noun in partitive singular, not plural:

monta taloa = many houses (talo = house)
monta kirjaa = many books (kirja = book)
monta tähdistöä = many constellations (tähdistö = constellation)

So:

tähdistö = constellation
tähdistöä = partitive singular

You could see monia tähdistöjä, where:

monia = many (partitive plural of moni)
tähdistöjä = partitive plural of “constellation”

Both are grammatically fine, but monta + partitive singular is very common and completely natural here.

What is the function of the -ä ending in tähdistöä?

The -ä marks the partitive singular case:

nominative: tähdistö = constellation
partitive singular: tähdistöä

After monta, Finnish typically uses the partitive to show an indefinite quantity:

monta autoa = many cars
monta ihmistä = many people
monta tähdistöä = many constellations

So tähdistöä is in partitive singular because monta governs that case.

Why is it joka yö and not something like jokainen yö?

Joka and jokainen are related but used differently.

joka + time word is the normal way to say “every …”:
- joka päivä = every day
- joka viikko = every week
- joka yö = every night
jokainen is more like “each (one), every single (one)” and often used as a pronoun or adjective:
- jokainen ihminen = each person / every person
- jokainen yö oli kylmä = each night was cold

In phrases like “every night” referring to a repeated time, Finnish almost always uses joka yö, not jokainen yö in neutral style. Jokainen yö sounds more emphatic (each and every night).

Why doesn’t yö have any case ending after joka?

The word joka behaves like a determiner (“every”) that itself carries the needed case or governs the bare nominative form of the noun.

For simple time expressions like this, the pattern is:

joka päivä = every day
joka viikko = every week
joka yö = every night

The noun (yö) stays in the basic (nominative) form.
If you needed another case, you’d usually put that case on joka, not on the noun:

joka yö = every night (as subject/object or basic adverbial)
jokaisena yönä = on every night (adessive-marked phrase, more formal/emphatic)

In everyday speech, joka yö is the default.

Could the sentence be written with a more “explicit” relative clause, like in English?

Yes. A very natural alternative is:

Ihmiset, jotka työskentelevät avaruusasemalla, näkevät monta tähdistöä joka yö.

Here:

jotka työskentelevät avaruusasemalla = who work at the space station

This matches English structure more directly:

The people *who work at the space station see many constellations every night.*

The original version:

Avaruusasemalla työskentelevät ihmiset…

uses a participle phrase (työskentelevät ihmiset = working people / people who work), which is stylistically a bit more compact and common in written Finnish.

In English we say “at the space station” and “the people”. Where are the words “the” or “a” in the Finnish sentence?

Finnish has no articles (“a/an” or “the”).
Definiteness and indefiniteness are usually understood from context and word order, not from separate words.

avaruusasemalla can mean:
- at a space station
- at the space station
  depending on the situation.
ihmiset can mean:
- people
- the people
  again depending on context.

Here, given the context (we’re presumably talking about a particular group: people who work on a space station), English naturally translates with “the people who work at the space station”, but Finnish doesn’t mark “the” explicitly.

Is the word order fixed, or could it be something like Ihmiset, jotka työskentelevät avaruusasemalla, joka yö näkevät monta tähdistöä?

Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but not everything is equally natural.

Possible and natural options include:

Avaruusasemalla työskentelevät ihmiset näkevät monta tähdistöä joka yö.
Ihmiset, jotka työskentelevät avaruusasemalla, näkevät joka yö monta tähdistöä.
Joka yö avaruusasemalla työskentelevät ihmiset näkevät monta tähdistöä.

Moving joka yö earlier or later is fine and changes emphasis slightly (what you stress in the sentence).

Your suggestion:

Ihmiset, jotka työskentelevät avaruusasemalla, joka yö näkevät monta tähdistöä

is understandable but sounds awkward to a native speaker, because joka yö is stuck in the middle of the clause in a way that disrupts its rhythm. It’s more natural to put joka yö either:

right before the verb: …joka yö näkevät…, or
at the very beginning or very end of the clause.

So word order is flexible, but there are preferred patterns for smooth, natural Finnish.