Questions & Answers about Tämä käynti virastossa kesti vain vartin.
Why is it Tämä käynti virastossa and not Tämä käynti virastoon?
Because virastossa is the inessive case (“in/at the office”), describing the location where the visit took place.
- virastossa = in/at the office (where you were)
- virastoon (illative) = into/to the office (movement/destination)
So käynti virastossa is “a visit at the office.” If you wanted to stress going there, you’d more naturally say something like Kävin virastossa (“I went to the office / visited the office”), but with the noun käynti, the place is commonly given as the location of the visit.
What case is käynti in, and why?
Käynti is in the nominative singular. Here it’s the subject of the sentence: the thing that lasted.
The full subject phrase is Tämä käynti virastossa (“This visit at the office”).
What does tämä do here, and does it affect the noun form?
Tämä means “this” and agrees with the noun in number and case. Since käynti is nominative singular, tämä is also nominative singular: tämä käynti.
Why is the verb kesti used, and what form is it?
is the of (“to last”). It’s used because the sentence describes a completed past event: the visit has already happened.