Breakdown of Se on suomalainen talo.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
talo
house
suomalainen
Finnish / Finn
Questions & Answers about Se on suomalainen talo.
The lesson taught us hän for the third person. Why does this sentence use se?
Hän means he or she and is used strictly for people in formal Finnish. Se means it and is used for things, like a house (talo), or animals. Note that in everyday spoken Finnish, people often use se to refer to other people too, but in standard writing, stick to hän for humans and se for things.
Is on the exact same verb form used with hän?
Yes! The verb olla (to be) takes the form on for all third-person singular pronouns. You use the exact same word whether you are saying hän on (he or she is) or se on (it is).
Why is suomalainen written with a lowercase letter, unlike nationalities in English?
In Finnish, adjectives describing nationality or language are never capitalized. You only capitalize the name of the country itself, such as Suomi (Finland). Therefore, suomalainen (Finnish) starts with a lowercase letter.
Where is the word for 'a' or 'an' in this sentence?
Finnish does not have articles like a, an, or the. The word talo can mean a house, the house, or just house depending entirely on the context. In this sentence, suomalainen talo naturally translates to a Finnish house.