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Questions & Answers about Mies seisoo ovella.
Is seisoa (to stand) one of the Verb Type 4 verbs we are learning in this lesson?
No, seisoa is actually a Verb Type 1 verb (verbs that end in two vowels). To get the "he/she/it" form, you take the stem (seiso-) and double the last vowel to get seisoo. It is here as a quick refresher so you don't forget your Type 1 rules while focusing on the new Type 4 verbs!
Why does the word for door, ovi, change to ove- in ovella?
Many older Finnish words that end in -i change that -i to an -e- before you add any grammatical endings. So the base word ovi gives us the stem ove-, to which we then add the location ending.
Why is the ending -lla used here instead of -ssa?
The ending -lla (the adessive case) usually translates to "on" or "at" a place. So ovella means "at the door". If you used the -ssa ending (ovessa), it would literally mean "inside the door" (like a peephole, a built-in lock, or a termite!).
Where is the word for "the" in this sentence?
Finnish does not have articles like "a", "an", or "the". The single word mies can mean "a man" or "the man" depending on the context. Because mies is placed at the beginning of the sentence, it usually implies we are talking about a specific, known man, which is why it translates best to "the man".