Questions & Answers about Poika kysyy, ja opettaja puhuu.
Why do the verbs kysyy and puhuu end in double vowels?
They are both in the "he/she/it" form (third person singular). For Verb Type 1, you find the stem by dropping the final -a or -ä, and then for this specific person form, you just double the last vowel of the stem. So the stem kysy- becomes kysyy, and puhu- becomes puhuu.
If the dictionary form of "to ask" is kysyä, why doesn't kysyy have an ä in it?
To make the stem for Verb Type 1, you drop the very last vowel of the dictionary form. For kysyä, you drop the -ä, leaving the stem kysy-. Then you double the final vowel of that stem for the third person form, making it kysyy. The ä is removed completely during this process.
Why is there a comma before ja (and)?
In Finnish, when you connect two complete clauses (mini-sentences) that each have their own subject and verb, you usually must put a comma before ja. Here, poika kysyy and opettaja puhuu are both complete thoughts with their own subjects, so the comma is required by Finnish grammar rules.
The English translation says "The boy" and "the teacher", but I don't see a word for "the" in Finnish. Why?
Finnish does not have articles like "a", "an", or "the". The word poika can mean "a boy" or "the boy", and opettaja can mean "a teacher" or "the teacher". You just have to figure out which one makes the most sense based on the context of the sentence.
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