Breakdown of Nuo vanhat autot ovat ulkona.
olla
to be
auto
car
ulkona
outside
nuo
those (over there)
vanha
old
Questions & Answers about Nuo vanhat autot ovat ulkona.
Why use nuo for "those" instead of ne?
Both can translate to "those" or "they," but they are used differently. Nuo is used for things you can physically see and point at that are a bit further away from you. Ne is usually for things that are out of sight, already mentioned, or abstract. In this sentence, the speaker is looking directly at the cars outside.
Why doesn't nuo end in a -t like the other plural words?
Demonstrative words (this, that, these, those) have their own unique plural forms in Finnish rather than just adding a -t. The singular word for "that" is tuo, and its plural changes the first letter to become nuo (those). You simply have to memorize these small pointing words!
Why do both vanhat and autot have a -t ending?
In Finnish, describing words (adjectives) have to match the noun they are describing. Because autot (cars) is a plural noun and gets the -t ending, the adjective vanha (old) must also take the plural -t ending, becoming vanhat.
Why do we use ovat here instead of on?
If the cars are plural, why doesn't ulkona get a plural -t ending too?
Ulkona just means "outside." It is a location word (an adverb) telling us where the cars are, not an adjective describing what kind of cars they are. Only adjectives and nouns change to match a plural subject, so ulkona stays exactly the same.
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