Pomo odottaa meitä palaverihuoneessa.

The boss is waiting for us in the meeting room.

Breakdown of Pomo odottaa meitä palaverihuoneessa.

• -ssa: in
• odottaa: to wait for
• me: us
• pomo: boss
• palaverihuone: meeting room

Questions & Answers about Pomo odottaa meitä palaverihuoneessa.

Why is the object meitä and not meidät (or meidän)?

Because the verb odottaa (to wait for / to expect) normally takes a partitive object in Finnish: odottaa jotakuta/jotakin.
So meitä is the partitive plural of me (we), meaning (waiting for) us.

• meidät is accusative (total object) and is used with many verbs when the action is seen as completed, but odottaa is a classic verb that still uses the partitive in standard Finnish.
• meidän is genitive (of us / our) and wouldn’t fit here unless you were building a different structure (like meidän pomomme = our boss).

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What form is palaverihuoneessa, and what does -ssa/-ssä mean?

Palaverihuoneessa is in the inessive case, marked by -ssa/-ssä, meaning in (inside) a place.

• palaverihuone = meeting room (a compound noun)
• palaverihuoneessa = in the meeting room

The ending is -ssa (not -ssä) because of vowel harmony: the word contains back vowels (a, o, u), so it takes the back-vowel version -ssa.

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How is odottaa conjugated here, and why is it odottaa (not something else)?

Odottaa is the 3rd person singular present tense form, matching pomo (the boss) as the subject.

• infinitive: odottaa
• minä odotan = I wait
• sinä odotat = you (sg) wait
• hän odottaa = he/she waits
• pomo odottaa = the boss waits

So pomo odottaa is simply subject + present tense verb.

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Does Finnish need an article like the in pomo?

No. Finnish has no articles (no the/a/an).
Pomo can mean the boss or a boss depending on context. If you need to be more specific, you typically use context or additional words (like tämä pomo = this boss, meidän pomo = our boss).

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What exactly is pomo—is it neutral or informal?

Pomo is common and slightly informal/colloquial, like boss in English. In more formal contexts you might see:

• esimies = supervisor (more neutral/formal)
• johtaja = director/manager (role-dependent)

But pomo is very normal in everyday speech.

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Why is palaverihuone one long word? How do I parse it?

Finnish uses compound nouns very freely, so palaverihuone is built as:

• palaveri = meeting (often a workplace meeting; fairly common/colloquial)
• huone = room
  → palaverihuone = meeting room

Then you add the case ending to the whole compound: palaverihuone-essa.

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Is the word order fixed? Could I move palaverihuoneessa or meitä?

Word order is flexible. Pomo odottaa meitä palaverihuoneessa is a neutral, straightforward order (roughly S + V + O + place). But you can move elements to emphasize or set the scene:

• Palaverihuoneessa pomo odottaa meitä. (focus: location/scene first)
• Meitä pomo odottaa palaverihuoneessa. (focus: us)

The case endings keep the roles clear even when you reorder.

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Could palaverihuoneessa be replaced by another location case to change the meaning?

Yes. Finnish location is often expressed by a set of cases:

• palaverihuoneessa (inessive) = in the meeting room (inside)
• palaverihuoneeseen (illative) = into the meeting room (movement toward inside)
• palaverihuoneesta (elative) = out of the meeting room

So if the boss is waiting inside, inessive -ssa is correct.

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How do I pronounce the tricky parts, especially the double letters in odottaa and the long word palaverihuoneessa?

Key points:

• Finnish stress is usually on the first syllable: PO-mo, O-dot-taa, PA-la-ve-ri-huo-nees-sa
• Double vowels and consonants are longer:
  • odottaa has a long tt and a long aa at the end
  • palaverihuoneessa has long ee: ...huo-NEES-sa

Length can change meaning in Finnish, so it matters.

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If I wanted to say My boss is waiting for us, how would that change pomo?

You’d typically use the genitive meidän (our/my depends on who the me refers to) before the noun:

• Meidän pomo odottaa meitä palaverihuoneessa. = Our boss is waiting for us.

If you specifically mean my (not our), use minun (often shortened to mun in speech):

• Minun pomo odottaa meitä palaverihuoneessa. = My boss is waiting for us.