Breakdown of Minulla on lippu, mutta juna on tuolla.
olla
to be
minä
I
mutta
but
tuolla
over there
juna
train
lippu
ticket
Questions & Answers about Minulla on lippu, mutta juna on tuolla.
Why does the sentence use Minulla on to say 'I have'?
Finnish does not have a direct verb for 'to have'. Instead, it uses a structure that literally translates to 'on me is'. You take the word for 'I' (minä), add the ending -lla to mean 'on me' (minulla), and follow it with on (is).
Why is lippu in its basic dictionary form here?
In the Finnish possession structure, the thing you own is grammatically the subject of the sentence. Because it acts as the subject, lippu stays in its basic form (the nominative case) rather than taking an object ending.
Both minulla and tuolla end in -lla. Is that a coincidence?
Not at all! The -lla ending is the adessive case, which generally means 'on' or 'at'. In minulla, it is used to show possession (literally 'on me'). In tuolla, it is added to the word tuo (that) to describe a location, meaning 'at that place' or 'over there'.
Why is the word order juna on tuolla instead of tuolla on juna?
The second half of the sentence is a standard statement about where a specific thing is, so it uses the normal subject-verb-location word order. If it were tuolla on juna, it would change the meaning to 'there is a train over there' rather than 'the train is over there'.
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