tapaamassa

Tapaamassa is a Finnish present active participle form of the verb tavata, meaning “to meet.” The word functions to express an ongoing act of meeting and is often used with auxiliary olla (to be) to convey a progressive aspect, for example, oli tapaamassa vanhempiaan, meaning “was meeting his/her parents.” As a participle, tapaamassa can also occur in attributive phrases to describe someone who is in the act of meeting someone, such as tapaamassa oleva kollega (“the colleague who is meeting [someone]”).

Formation and usage

Tapaamassa is formed from the verb stem tavata plus the present-active participle ending -massa. It does not stand alone as a finite verb; instead, it appears in finite clauses with olla to indicate ongoing action, or within noun phrases to describe a person or a thing involved in meeting. The object of tavata is typically expressed in the partitive or possessive form, for example vanhempiaan (his/her parents) or ystäväänsä (his/her friend), depending on grammatical context.

Examples

- Hän oli tapaamassa vanhempiaan. (He was meeting his/her parents.)

- Hän on tapaamassa ystäväänsä. (He is meeting his/her friend.)

- Tapaamassa oleva kollega tulee myöhemmin. (The colleague who is meeting [someone] is coming later.)

Relation to related terms

Tapaamassa is closely related to tavata (to meet) and tapaaminen (a meeting). It is distinct from the noun-based tapaaminen, which refers to the act or event of meeting itself, whereas tapaamassa denotes the ongoing process of meeting someone.