Breakdown of Ne ovat täällä, mutta nämä puut ovat ulkona.
olla
to be
mutta
but
täällä
here
ulkona
outside
nämä
these
ne
they / those (non-human) / they (of people)
puu
tree
Questions & Answers about Ne ovat täällä, mutta nämä puut ovat ulkona.
Why does the sentence use ne for 'they' instead of he?
In Finnish, he is only used for humans. Since this sentence is talking about trees (puut), we must use the pronoun ne, which means 'they' for animals and objects. ne is the plural form of se (it).
How do we know that puut is plural?
The letter -t at the end of the word is the standard plural marker in Finnish. The base word is puu (tree), and adding -t makes it puut (trees).
Why does 'these trees' translate to nämä puut instead of tämä puut?
In Finnish, the pointing word (the demonstrative) must match the noun. Because puut is plural, the word for 'these' must also be the plural form nämä instead of the singular tämä.
What is the exact difference between ne and nämä here?
They are both plural, but they point to things at different distances. nämä means 'these' (things physically close to the speaker), while ne means 'they' or 'those' (things further away, or things that were just brought up in conversation).
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