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Questions & Answers about Mistä sinä tulet?
What exactly does the ending -stä do in the word mistä?
The ending -stä is the elative case, which means "from" or "out of". It's attached to the question stem for "what/where". So instead of missä (where / in what), we get mistä, which literally translates to "from where".
English puts "from" at the end of this question. Why doesn't Finnish do that?
In Finnish, small words like "from" or "in" are usually expressed as endings attached directly to a word rather than being separate words. Because "from" is built right into the question word mistä, it naturally stays at the beginning of the sentence.
Can I drop the word sinä and just ask "Mistä tulet?"
Yes, absolutely! The -t at the end of tulet already tells us the subject is "you". In everyday Finnish, it is very common to drop the personal pronouns minä (I) and sinä (you) because the verb's ending does the work for you.
Wait, the dictionary form is tulla (to come). How did it become tulet?
tulla is a Type 3 verb. To make it match sinä (you), you remove the -la ending to find the root, add an -e- to make the stem, and finally add the personal "you" ending -t. That builds the word tulet.