Ompelija sanoi takin sauman olevan melkein auki.

It breaks down like this:

• Ompelija = the subject
• sanoi = the main verb
• takin sauman olevan melkein auki = the content of what was said

So the sentence is basically:

• The seamstress said ...
• ...that the coat’s seam was almost open / coming undone

The last part is a non-finite clause, not a full että-clause.

Sanoi is the past tense of sanoa.

• sanoa = to say
• sanoo = says
• sanoi = said

So this sentence is reporting something the seamstress said in the past.

Because takin is the genitive of takki and shows possession:

• takki = coat
• takin = of the coat / the coat’s

So:

• takin sauma = the coat’s seam / the seam of the coat

This is a very common Finnish noun phrase pattern: possessor + possessed thing

This is one of the trickiest parts of the sentence.

The two -n endings are doing different jobs:

• takin = genitive of possession, meaning of the coat
• sauman = the subject of the non-finite clause olevan melkein auki

In this construction, the subject of the olevan clause is usually put in the genitive:

• sauman olevan melkein auki = the seam being / to be almost open

So sauman is not genitive because it belongs to takin. It is genitive because of the clause structure with olevan.

Olevan is a special non-finite form of olla used in this kind of structure.

You will often see this pattern after verbs like:

• sanoa = to say
• luulla = to think
• tietää = to know
• huomata = to notice

Pattern:

• X sanoi Y:n olevan Z
• X said that Y was Z

So here:

• takin sauman olevan melkein auki

corresponds to:

• that the coat’s seam was almost open

Even though olevan comes from a form that looks present-like, in this sentence it matches English was because the time is understood relative to sanoi.

It absolutely can.

A very close alternative is:

• Ompelija sanoi, että takin sauma oli melkein auki.

That version may be easier for learners to understand, because it looks more like English said that...

Compare:

• ... että takin sauma oli melkein auki
• ... takin sauman olevan melkein auki

Both are normal. The olevan version is more compact and is very common in Finnish, especially after reporting and thinking verbs.

Not really.

The whole phrase

• takin sauman olevan melkein auki

is the content of what was said.

Inside that phrase, sauman is the subject of olevan, not the direct object of sanoi.

So it is better to think of the sentence as:

• The seamstress said [the coat’s seam to be almost open].

That is closer to the Finnish structure than treating sauman as a normal object.

Because auki is used as a predicative state word, meaning something like open.

Here it works with olla:

• olla auki = to be open

So:

• melkein auki = almost open

It does not need a case ending here. It is simply the complement describing the state of the seam.

In clothing context, auki can suggest that something is coming apart or opening up, not just standing open like a door.

Melkein modifies auki.

So the idea is:

• not fully open
• but nearly open

In other words:

• melkein auki = almost open / nearly open

It does not mean the seam was only “almost a seam” or anything like that. The adverb is specifically describing the state auki.

Because Finnish does not have articles like a and the.

Whether something is definite or indefinite is usually understood from context.

Here, the phrase takin sauma naturally sounds like a specific seam belonging to a specific coat in the situation being discussed, so English uses the.

In Finnish grammar, this is called the referatiivirakenne.

It is used to report what someone says, thinks, knows, notices, and so on, without using a full että-clause.

A useful pattern to remember is:

• sanoi jonkin olevan... = said that something was...
• luuli jonkin olevan... = thought that something was...
• tiedän jonkin olevan... = I know that something is...

So this sentence is a very good example of a common advanced Finnish structure.