Questions & Answers about Pojan ikä on viisitoista vuotta.
Why is it pojan and not "poikan"?
Pojan means "the boy's". To form the genitive case to show possession, we add an -n to the end of the word. However, the root word poika (boy) undergoes a common spelling change called consonant gradation. When the -n is added to close the syllable, the k drops out, changing poika to pojan.
Why is "years" translated as vuotta instead of the basic word vuosi?
In Finnish, any number greater than one must be followed by a noun in the partitive case. Vuotta is the partitive form of vuosi (year). Since the number here is viisitoista (fifteen), the word for year has to be in the partitive.
How does the word viisitoista (fifteen) break down?
It is built from viisi (five) and toista (which comes from the word for "second"). In Finnish, the numbers 11 through 19 are formed by adding -toista to the base number. It literally translates to "five of the second (ten)".
Why isn't there a word for "the" before pojan?
Finnish does not have articles like "a" or "the". You just say pojan ikä, and whether it means "a boy's age" or "the boy's age" is understood from the context. Usually, placing a specific noun right at the start of the sentence implies "the".
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