Learn Finnish: Piha on talon takana. - The yard is behind the house.

In Finnish, words like takana (behind) are called postpositions. They usually require the word they describe to be in the genitive case, which means adding an -n to the end. So, talo (house) becomes talon (of the house).

Why does takana come after talon? In English, 'behind' comes first.

Finnish mostly uses postpositions rather than prepositions. Just like the prefix 'post-' implies, they go after the noun they relate to. Literally, talon takana acts like 'the house's behind' or 'at the back of the house'.

Is takana a base word, or does it have an ending on it?

It comes from the root taka-, which refers to the back of something. The -na ending is actually a grammar case that shows a state of being, but you don't need to worry about the deep grammar of that right now! You can just memorize takana as a fixed postposition meaning 'behind'.

How do we know it means 'the yard' and not 'a yard'?

Finnish doesn't have words for 'a' or 'the'. You have to figure it out from context. Because we are describing a specific, grounded location here, translating piha and talo with 'the' makes the most natural sense in English.