Questions & Answers about Me syömme usein kalaa.
How do we build syömme from its dictionary form?
The dictionary form is syödä (to eat). Because it ends in -dä, it is a Type 2 verb. To find the verb stem, you simply drop the -dä to get syö-. Then, you add the personal ending for "we", which is -mme, giving you syömme.
Why does the sentence use kalaa instead of the basic word kala?
Kalaa is in the partitive case. In Finnish, you use the partitive case when talking about an unspecified amount of a substance or food. Since the sentence is about eating "some fish" generally—not eating one whole, specific fish—the basic word kala gets the partitive ending -a.
Is the word order strictly Me syömme usein...?
Finnish word order is quite flexible! Putting the adverb usein (often) right after the verb is a very common and neutral way to build the sentence. You could also say Me syömme kalaa usein, which matches English word order, but in Finnish that puts a little more special emphasis on the fact that it happens often.
Why does the ending for kalaa use an -a, while the dictionary form of the verb (syödä) uses an -ä?