Questions & Answers about Nämä kukat ovat myös sisällä.
Why do we use nämä instead of tämä here?
The word tämä means this for a single thing, but here we are talking about plural flowers (kukat). In Finnish, demonstrative words have to match the noun they point to, so we use the plural form nämä (these).
The dictionary word for flower is kukka, so why is it spelled kukat here with only one k?
This is an example of consonant gradation. Adding the plural marker -t at the end closes the final syllable. That makes the strong double kk inside the word weaken into a single k.
Why is the verb ovat used instead of on?
Because the subject of the sentence, Nämä kukat (These flowers), is plural. In standard Finnish, the verb olla (to be) must take its third-person plural form, ovat, to match a plural subject.
Does the ending -llä on sisällä mean something specific?
Yes! The ending -llä is a location case ending usually meaning on or at. The word sisällä (inside) is built from a root meaning inner part, so it literally means something like at the inner part.