Word
Tytöllä on uusi pyörä.
Meaning
The girl has a new bike.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about Tytöllä on uusi pyörä.
Why does the sentence use on (is) instead of a word for "has"?
Finnish does not have a direct verb for "to have". Instead, it uses a structure that literally translates to "on someone is something". So, tytöllä on literally means "on the girl is", which is how Finns express ownership.
Why is the word for girl spelled tytöllä here instead of tyttö or tyttöllä?
To say "on the girl", we add the ending -llä to the basic word tyttö. Adding this ending triggers a common spelling change called consonant gradation. The strong double tt in the middle of the word weakens to a single t, giving us tytöllä.
Why does the ending on tytöllä use -llä instead of -lla?
This is a great example of vowel harmony. The word tyttö contains the front vowels y and ö. Because of this, any endings attached to it must also use front vowels. Therefore, it takes -llä instead of the back-vowel version -lla.
Why are the words uusi (new) and pyörä (bike) in their basic dictionary forms?
In the Finnish "to have" structure, the thing that is owned actually acts as the subject of the sentence. Because it is the subject, uusi pyörä stays in its basic dictionary form, which is called the nominative case.