Question 1

How do you form numbers from 11 to 19, like viisitoista and kuusitoista?

Accepted Answer

You simply take the base number from 1 to 9 and add -toista. For example, viisi (five) becomes viisitoista (fifteen), and kuusi (six) becomes kuusitoista (sixteen). The ending -toista literally means "of the second" (referring to the second set of ten).

Question 2

Why are the words for tables and chairs in the partitive case (pöytää, tuolia)?

Accepted Answer

In Finnish, any number greater than one requires the noun following it to be in the partitive singular case. That is why we use pöytää instead of the basic form pöytä, and tuolia instead of tuoli.

Question 3

There are 15 tables and 16 chairs. Why does the sentence use on (is) instead of ovat (are)?

Accepted Answer

This is a "there is/there are" sentence (an existential sentence). In Finnish, when you start a sentence with a location like huoneessa ("in the room") to say what exists there, the verb is always the singular on, even if you are talking about multiple things.

Question 4

The basic word for room is huone. Why does "in the room" have a double 'e' in huoneessa?

Accepted Answer

For Finnish nouns that end in -e in their basic form, you have to double that final -e before adding most endings. So, huone + -ssa (the ending for "in") becomes huoneessa.

Huoneessa on viisitoista pöytää ja kuusitoista tuolia.

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