Questions & Answers about Meillä on iso koira ja pieni kissa.
Why does this sentence use on instead of olemme for the word 'we'?
In Finnish, there is no direct verb for 'to have'. Instead, you use the 'at someone is' structure. Because the sentence literally means 'At us is a big dog and a small cat', the verb is the third-person singular on (is) rather than olemme (we are).
How does the word me (we) turn into meillä?
To show who owns something, you take the owner and add the ending -lla or -llä (meaning 'at' or 'on'). For the pronoun me, you add -llä to get meillä, which literally means 'at us'.
Why are koira and kissa in their basic dictionary forms?
In English, the dog and cat are the objects of the verb 'have'. But in this Finnish structure, the things you own are grammatically the subjects of the sentence. Because they act as the subjects, they stay in their basic dictionary form.
Do the adjectives iso and pieni need any special endings here?
No, they stay in their basic forms. In Finnish, adjectives always match the form of the noun they describe. Since koira and kissa are in the basic form, iso and pieni must also stay in the basic form.
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