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Questions & Answers about Itkeekö poika?
Why does this use -kö instead of -ko for the question ending?
This is because of vowel harmony! The word itkee only contains the vowels 'i' and 'e'. These are neutral vowels. When a Finnish word only has neutral vowels, it behaves like a front-vowel word and takes front-vowel endings like -kö (rather than the back-vowel -ko).
How do we get the form itkee from the dictionary word?
The dictionary form is itkeä (to cry). To get the he/she/it form, we take the stem itke- and double the last vowel, giving us itkee. Then we just attach the -kö to the end!
Why is the verb itkeekö at the beginning of the sentence?
In Finnish, when you ask a yes/no question using the -ko or -kö ending, the word with that ending must come first in the sentence. So instead of putting the boy first, the verb jumps to the front: Itkeekö poika?
If I wanted to ask 'Is it the BOY who is crying?', would I attach the ending to poika?
Exactly! You attach the question ending to the word you are asking about. If you are asking if it's the boy specifically, you would say Poikako itkee?. Notice that poika takes -ko instead of -kö because it contains the back vowels 'o' and 'a'.