Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Finnish

### Contrastive focus questions

In standard yes/no questions, you attach the question clitic *-ko/-kö* to the verb and place the verb at the beginning of the sentence. 

But what if you want to ask about a specific detail? To ask "Is it the *glassblower* who blows into the pipe?", you take the word you are emphasizing, attach *-ko/-kö* to it, and move that word to the front of the sentence instead of the verb.

Remember your vowel harmony: use *-ko* for words with back vowels (a, o, u) and *-kö* for words with front vowels (ä, ö, y).

{{item:971987}}

### Keeping case endings

This structure works for any part of the sentence—the object, the instrument, or the location. 

Crucially, the word you bring to the front keeps whatever case ending it needs for its role in the sentence. The *-ko/-kö* clitic is attached at the very end of the word, *after* all other suffixes and case endings.

{{item:971991}}

{{item:971998}}

{{item:972001}}

### Postpositions and direct contrasts

When emphasizing a postpositional phrase (like "through the pipe"), you attach the clitic to the main noun, and the postposition immediately follows it.

{{item:971997}}

Because these questions specifically single out one piece of information, they are often paired with *vai* (or) to offer a direct alternative. 

{{item:972002}}

Contrastive focus questions (-ko/-kö)

adjective

adposition

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

postposition

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Demonstrative pronouns (tämä, tuo, se)

Singular personal pronouns (minä, sinä, hän)

Plural personal pronouns (me, te, he)

Plural demonstratives (nämä, nuo, ne)

Coordinating conjunctions (ja, mutta, tai)

Yes/no questions (-ko / -kö)

Basic question words (kuka, mikä, missä)

Negation of to be (en ole, ei ole)

The inessive case (-ssa / -ssä)

Double consonant gradation (kk, pp, tt)

Consonant gradation (-ssa/-ssä)

Verb Type 1 (puhun, puhut, puhuu)

Verb Type 1 with consonant gradation

Negative verbs (en puhu, et lue)

External location (-lla/-llä)

There is / there are (kaupungissa on)

Possession (minulla on)

Numbers 1 to 10 (yksi, kaksi, kolme)

The partitive singular (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Quantities with numbers (kaksi autoa)

Negative possession (ei ole)

Numbers 11 to 100 and 1000

Partitive verbs

Partitive personal pronouns (minua, sinua)

Verb Type 2 (-da/-dä)

Partitive for mass nouns (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Partitive for negative objects

Adjective agreement

Verb Type 3

The elative case (-sta/-stä)

Negative possession (minulla ei ole…)

The illative case (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Numbers 21 to 99

Static vs. movement verbs

Verb Type 4 (-Vta / -Vtä)

Verb Type 5 (-ita / -itä)

Genitive singular for possession (-n)

Total object (-n)

Accusative personal pronouns (-t)

Obligation (täytyy)

Into places (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Postpositions with the genitive

My and your (-ni, -si)

Onto and to someone (-lle)

From someone or somewhere (-lta, -ltä)

Telling time (kello on...)

Months of the year (-ssa, -ssä)

Days of the week (-na, -nä)

When and why (milloin, miksi)

The illative case (mihin, -Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Past tense of to be (olin, olit, oli)

The seasons (kevät, kesä, syksy, talvi)

The imperative mood (lue!, syö!, mene!)

The past tense of to be (olin, oli)

The illative case (-hVn, -seen)

Greetings and goodbyes (hei, näkemiin)

Thank you and sorry (kiitos, anteeksi)

Liking things (pitää / tykätä + -sta/-stä)

Temporary states and roles (-na/-nä)

Change of state (-ksi)

Ongoing actions (-massa/-mässä)

Going to do an action (-maan/-mään)

Returning from an action (-masta/-mästä)

Third-person possessives (-nsa/-nsä or -Vn)

Plural possessives (-mme, -nne)

Indefinite pronouns (joku, jokin, kaikki)

Negative indefinite pronouns (ei kukaan, ei mikään)

Commands for verb types 4 and 5

Adverb formation (-sti)

Past tense for verb type 1 (-i-)

Past tense vowel changes for verb type 1 (-o- / -i-)

Past tense for verb type 2 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 3 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 4 (-si-)

Past tense for verb type 5 (-itsi-)

Past tense consonant gradation

Past participles for verb types 1 and 2 (-nut / -nyt)

Past participle singular for verb types 3-5 (-nnut, -llut)

Active past participle plural (-neet)

Past tense negative (en mennyt, emme olleet)

The perfect tense (olen ollut)

The perfect tense negative (en ole nähnyt)

Total plural objects (-t)

Partitive plural (-ia / -iä)

Partitive plural (-ja / -jä)

Question	Answer
glassblower	lasinpuhaltaja
to blow	puhaltaa
pipe (whistle or straw)	pilli
Is it the glassblower who blows into the pipe?	Lasinpuhaltajako puhaltaa pilliin?
tongs	pihdit
to bend	taivuttaa
crystal	kristalli
Is it with one pair of tongs that she bends the crystal?	Yksillä pihdeilläkö hän taivuttaa kristallia?
transparent	läpinäkyvä
to cool down (something)	jäähdyttää
Is it the transparent object that the glassblower must cool down?	Läpinäkyvä esinekö lasinpuhaltajan täytyy jäähdyttää?
crack (hairline or small flaw)	särö
Was it the tongs that caused the crack in the crystal?	Pihditkö aiheuttivat särön kristalliin?
Is it through the pipe that you blow transparent glass?	Pillinkö läpi sinä puhallat läpinäkyvää lasia?
Was it a crack that you noticed in the transparent glass?	Särönkö sinä huomasit läpinäkyvässä lasissa?
glassblowing	lasinpuhallus
Is it after the glassblowing that they cool it down immediately?	Lasinpuhalluksenko jälkeen he jäähdyttävät sen heti?
Is it in the workshop that the glassblower works?	Pajassako lasinpuhaltaja työskentelee?
Is it the tongs that you need, or the pipe?	Pihditkö sinä tarvitset vai pillin?
Is it the transparent crystal that we must cool down?	Läpinäkyvä kristalliko meidän täytyy jäähdyttää?
Is it in the workshop that the glassblowing is currently underway?	Pajassako lasinpuhallus on parhaillaan meneillään?
Was it with two pairs of tongs that you broke it?	Kaksilla pihdeilläkö sinä rikoit sen?
Are you bending the crystal with PLIERS?	Pihdeilläkö sinä taivutat kristallia?