Hän taitaa olla vielä töissä.

He/She is probably still at work.

Breakdown of Hän taitaa olla vielä töissä.

• olla: to be
• hän: he/she
• vielä: still
• taitaa: to seem
• töissä: at work

Questions & Answers about Hän taitaa olla vielä töissä.

What does taitaa mean here?

Here taitaa does not mean simple ability. It adds the idea of a guess, assumption, or likelihood.

So Hän taitaa olla vielä töissä means something like:

• He/She is probably still at work
• I think he/she is still at work
• He/She seems to still be at work

The speaker is not stating it as a hard fact. They are making an informed guess.

Why is olla in the infinitive form?

Because taitaa is the finite verb, and it is followed by another verb in the basic infinitive form.

So the structure is:

• hän = subject
• taitaa = finite verb, present tense, 3rd person singular
• olla = infinitive, to be
• vielä töissä = the rest of the predicate

This is a very common Finnish pattern with modal or modal-like verbs:

• voi olla = may be / can be
• saattaa olla = may be / might be
• taitaa olla = is probably / seems to be

Does taitaa always mean probably, or can it mean something else?

In this kind of sentence, taitaa + infinitive usually means probably, I guess, or seems to.

But the verb taitaa can also have an older or more literal sense connected with being skilled at something. In modern everyday Finnish, though, when you see taitaa followed by another verb, it very often expresses probability or a guess.

So in this sentence, you should understand it as a modal-like meaning, not as to know how to.

What does vielä mean here?

Here vielä means still.

It shows that the situation is continuing:

• olla töissä = to be at work
• olla vielä töissä = to still be at work

In other contexts, vielä can also mean yet, depending on the sentence:

• En ole vielä valmis = I am not ready yet

But in this sentence, still is the natural meaning.

What does töissä mean exactly?

Töissä means at work or sometimes working, depending on context.

So olla töissä is a very common expression meaning:

• to be at work
• to be working

In this sentence, it most naturally means that the person has not finished work yet or is still at their workplace / still on the job.

What case is töissä, and why does it have that ending?

Töissä is in the inessive case, which often has the meaning in or at.

The ending here is -ssa / -ssä, but the word appears in a plural form:

• singular base: työ = work
• plural stem: töi-
• inessive plural: töissä

So literally it looks something like in the works, but idiomatically it simply means at work.

This is one of those forms that learners usually just need to recognize as a fixed, common expression: olla töissä.

Why is it töissä and not työssä?

Because töissä is the normal everyday expression for being at work.

Even though työssä is a possible Finnish form, töissä is much more common when talking about a person being at work in ordinary conversation.

So:

• Hän on töissä = He/She is at work

This does not mean the person has several jobs. The plural-looking form is just the usual idiomatic way Finnish expresses this idea.

Does hän mean he or she?

It can mean either he or she.

Finnish hän is gender-neutral, so the sentence does not tell you whether the person is male or female. You only know from context.

That is a very common thing for English speakers to notice, because English usually forces you to choose he or she, but Finnish does not.

Is olla töissä more like be at work or be working?

It can mean both, depending on context.

• be at work focuses more on the person’s situation or location
• be working focuses more on the activity

In many everyday situations, the difference is not important.
So Hän taitaa olla vielä töissä could be understood as:

• He/She is probably still at work
• He/She is probably still working

Usually the context tells you which English wording sounds best.

How certain does this sentence sound?

It sounds less certain than a direct statement.

Compare:

• Hän on vielä töissä = He/She is still at work

  • this sounds more direct and certain

• Hän taitaa olla vielä töissä = He/She is probably still at work

  • this sounds like the speaker is guessing or inferring

So taitaa softens the statement and makes it sound less absolute.

Can the word order change?

Yes, Finnish word order is fairly flexible, though the given sentence is a very natural neutral order:

• Hän taitaa olla vielä töissä

You may also hear slightly different orders, depending on emphasis. For example:

• Hän taitaa vielä olla töissä

This still means almost the same thing, but the placement of vielä can shift the emphasis a little.

For learners, the safest pattern is the one in the sentence you were given.

Would this sound different in spoken Finnish?

Yes, very often.

In everyday spoken Finnish, people commonly use se instead of hän for a person, especially in informal speech. So in conversation you might hear:

• Se taitaa olla vielä töissä

But the sentence with hän is good standard Finnish, and it is what learners usually see first.

So:

• hän = standard written / careful speech
• se = very common in everyday spoken Finnish