Questions & Answers about Mikä on naisen ammatti?
How do we get naisen from the basic word for woman?
The basic dictionary word for woman is nainen. In Finnish, words ending in -nen change that ending to -se- before adding any grammatical endings. To show possession (the genitive case), we add -n. So, nainen changes to naise- plus -n, giving us naisen (the woman's).
Does the possessor always go before the thing they own?
Yes! Just like in English when we say the woman's profession, the word in the genitive case (naisen) comes directly before the thing that is owned or associated with it (ammatti).
Why does the sentence use mikä for what instead of mitä?
We use the basic form mikä when we are asking to identify or name a specific, whole thing (like asking for the name of a profession). You would use mitä if you were asking about uncountable things, feelings, or an ongoing action. Since ammatti is in its basic form here, the question word mikä matches it.
How do we know it translates to the woman's instead of a woman's?
Finnish does not have articles like a or the. The phrase naisen ammatti can mean either a woman's profession or the woman's profession. You rely entirely on the context of the conversation to know which one is meant.
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