Questions & Answers about Heillä on kaksikymmentä euroa.
Why does Finnish use heillä on instead of a verb for 'to have'?
Finnish doesn't actually have a verb that means 'to have'. Instead, it uses a structure that literally means 'on someone is'. Heillä is the word he (they) with the ending -llä (on/at), so heillä on translates literally to 'on them is'.
Since heillä refers to 'they', why is the verb on (is) singular instead of ovat (are)?
In the Finnish 'have' structure, the verb is always the 3rd person singular on (is), no matter who 'has' the thing. Because you are literally saying 'on them is twenty euros', the verb does not change to match the owner.
Why is the word for euro euroa instead of just euro or a regular plural?
In Finnish, any number greater than one must be followed by a noun in the partitive case, which often ends in -a or -ä. That's why euro becomes euroa after the number twenty. Notice that it is the partitive singular form, not a plural form!
How is the number kaksikymmentä (twenty) formed?
It is made by combining kaksi (two) and kymmentä (the partitive form of kymmenen, meaning ten). So twenty in Finnish is literally 'two tens'. The rule of using the partitive after a number applies even inside the number words themselves!
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