Questions & Answers about Nuori nainen hymyilee kahvilassa.
How do we get kahvilassa from the word for cafe?
The dictionary form of cafe is kahvila. Because this is a non-gradating word, the core of the word doesn't change when we add endings. To say 'in the cafe', we just attach the inessive ending -ssa directly to the end. We use -ssa instead of -ssä because kahvila contains the back vowel a, which dictates the vowel harmony.
The English translation says 'is smiling'. How do you form the '-ing' continuous tense in Finnish?
Finnish doesn't have a separate continuous tense like English does! The single present tense verb hymyilee translates to both 'smiles' and 'is smiling'. You can tell which one makes sense based on the context of the sentence.
Is kahvila related to the word for coffee (kahvi)?
Yes! In Finnish, you can often add the place suffix -la or -lä to a noun to mean a place associated with that thing. So, kahvi (coffee) becomes kahvila (a place for coffee, meaning a cafe).
What is the dictionary form of hymyilee, and why does it look like this here?
The dictionary form of the verb is hymyillä (to smile). To make the 'he/she/it' form for this specific group of verbs, you take the stem hymyile- and double the final vowel, which results in hymyilee.
Learn Nuori nainen hymyilee kahvilassa and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free