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Questions & Answers about Mies seisoo tiellä.
Why does the word for road take the ending -llä instead of -lla?
This is due to vowel harmony. The root word is tie (road). Because its vowels (i and e) are considered front vowels, it must take the front vowel version of the adessive ending, which is -llä.
Why do we use the -llä ending instead of the -ssä ending here?
The -llä ending is the adessive case, used for being 'on' an open surface. The -ssä ending means 'in' or 'inside'. Since you stand on top of a road rather than inside it, Finnish uses tiellä (on the road).
Why is the verb spelled seisoo with a double 'o'?
This is the 'he/she/it' form of the verb seisoa (to stand). To make this form, you take the stem seiso- and lengthen the final vowel, which gives us seisoo.
Where is the word for 'the' in this sentence?
Finnish does not have articles like 'a' or 'the'. The word mies simply means 'man', and it can be translated as 'a man' or 'the man' depending on what makes the most sense in English context.