Breakdown of Mihin sinä kävelet? Pankkiin vai museoon?
sinä
you
vai
or (in questions)
kävellä
to walk
mihin
where to
museo
the museum
pankki
the bank
Questions & Answers about Mihin sinä kävelet? Pankkiin vai museoon?
Why is it mihin and not missä for "where"?
In Finnish, you have to show the direction of movement. Missä means "where at" (when you are already in a location), but mihin means "where to" (when you are going towards a destination). Since you are walking to a place in this sentence, you must use mihin.
Why do pankki and museo have extra letters at the end?
They are matching the "where to" (mihin) question. To say you are going into a place, you usually double the last vowel of the word and add -n. This is called the illative case. So pankki becomes pankkiin and museo becomes museoon.
Why does this sentence use vai for "or" instead of tai?
You must use vai here because it is a question where you are asking the listener to choose between specific options (the bank or the museum). Tai is used for "or" in regular statements, but almost never in choice-based questions.
The dictionary form is kävellä. Why is it kävelet and not "kävellät"?
Kävellä (to walk) belongs to a specific group of verbs (Verb Type 3) that end in two consonants and a vowel. To make the "you" form, you drop the -llä, add an -e-, and then add your personal ending -t. So kävellä becomes the stem kävele- and then kävelet.
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