Questions & Answers about Tämä auto on uusi ja kallis.
In this sentence, ja joins two adjectives. Does using ja affect the grammar of the words it connects?
No, ja is a very straightforward conjunction, exactly like "and" in English. It simply links uusi (new) and kallis (expensive) together without changing their endings. They both stay in their basic dictionary form.
If I changed this into a question asking "Is this car new OR expensive?", which Finnish word for "or" would I use instead of ja?
You would use vai. In Finnish, vai is specifically used in questions when you are asking the listener to choose between two options. If you were just making a statement (like "The car is new or expensive"), you would use the other word for "or", which is tai.
Why don't the adjectives uusi and kallis need any special endings here?
Because they are describing a single, countable noun (auto) using the verb on (is). When you describe a whole, individual object like this, the descriptive words stay in their basic form (the nominative case).
What is the difference between starting this sentence with Tämä auto versus Se auto?
Tämä means "this", so you use it when the car is physically close to you. Se means "it" or "that", so Se auto would mean "that car" or sometimes just "the car".
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