Learn Finnish: Huoneessa on viisitoista pöytää ja kuusitoista tuolia. - There are fifteen tables and sixteen chairs in the room.

Huoneessa on viisitoista pöytää ja kuusitoista tuolia.

There are fifteen tables and sixteen chairs in the room.

Breakdown of Huoneessa on viisitoista pöytää ja kuusitoista tuolia.

Questions & Answers about Huoneessa on viisitoista pöytää ja kuusitoista tuolia.

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

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).

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

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.

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

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.

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