Breakdown of Virkailija leimaa lomakkeen ja antaa sen takaisin.
Questions & Answers about Virkailija leimaa lomakkeen ja antaa sen takaisin.
Virkailija is a noun meaning something like clerk / official / office worker (often someone working at a service desk).
Grammatically it’s in the nominative singular, which is the normal form used for the subject of the sentence.
Leimaa is the present tense, 3rd person singular form of the verb leimata (to stamp).
Finnish verbs agree with the subject in person/number, so with virkailija (he/she/it; singular) you get leimaa.
Ja means and. In Virkailija leimaa … ja antaa …, both verbs share the same subject virkailija.
So it’s effectively: The clerk stamps the form and (the clerk) gives it back.
Lomakkeen is the genitive singular (often also called the -n object in this kind of sentence) of lomake (form).
In many everyday sentences, a completed action on a specific object often uses this -n form: the clerk stamps the whole form (one complete act).
Formally, lomakkeen looks like the genitive singular ending -n.
In Finnish grammar, for personal pronouns there is a distinct accusative (e.g. minut), but for most nouns the “total object” often appears in the genitive -n in singular. Many learning materials call this the accusative object, even though the form is identical to genitive for nouns.
Yes, Virkailija leimaa lomaketta… is possible, but it changes the nuance.
- lomakkeen (total object): the stamping is viewed as completed / whole.
- lomaketta (partitive): suggests an ongoing, incomplete, habitual, or “some of it” viewpoint (less “completed” as a single finished event).
In this situation (stamp the form once), lomakkeen is the natural choice.
Sen is the genitive/accusative form of se (it/that). Here it refers back to lomake / lomakkeen (the form).
Finnish often avoids repeating the noun and uses a pronoun instead: gives it back.
Finnish commonly repeats a noun like virkailija instead of using hän (he/she) unless the person is already established in the context. Also, hän is often used for a specific person, while virkailija keeps it neutral and role-focused (the clerk).
Takaisin means back. It indicates the direction/result of giving: gives it back (to you / to the original holder).
It commonly comes after the object: antaa sen takaisin, but you can also place it earlier for emphasis, e.g. antaa takaisin sen (less common) or antaa sen heti takaisin (gives it right back).
Finnish often leaves out information that’s obvious from context. In a service situation, antaa sen takaisin strongly implies back to you / back to the customer without needing to say it.
If you want to specify it, you can add an allative phrase: antaa sen takaisin asiakkaalle (to the customer) or antaa sen takaisin minulle (to me).
Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but the neutral order is often Subject – Verb – Object:
- Virkailija leimaa lomakkeen ja antaa sen takaisin.
You can move parts for emphasis or topic/focus, e.g. - Lomakkeen virkailija leimaa ja antaa sen takaisin. (focus on the form)
But the neutral, most natural desk-situation version is the original.
Past tense would be:
- Virkailija leimasi lomakkeen ja antoi sen takaisin.
leimaa → leimasi and antaa → antoi.
Yes. The dictionary form is leimata. In the present tense:
- leimata → leimaan (I stamp)
- leimata → leimaa (he/she stamps)
The stem alternation is part of Finnish verb conjugation patterns; it’s normal that the forms don’t look identical to the infinitive.
A natural negation is:
- Virkailija ei leimaa lomaketta eikä anna sitä takaisin.
Notes: - Finnish uses the negative verb ei
- a special form of the main verb (leimaa → leimaa stays the same here, but antaa → anna).
- With negation, the object is typically partitive: lomaketta, sitä.