Breakdown of Keneltä te lainaatte rahaa?
te
you (plural/formal)
raha
money
keneltä
from whom
lainata
to borrow
Questions & Answers about Keneltä te lainaatte rahaa?
Why do we use keneltä here instead of kuka or ketä?
Keneltä is the ablative ('from') form of the question word kuka (who). In Finnish, when you borrow something from someone, you put the person in the ablative case using the -lta/-ltä ending. So, keneltä literally means 'from whom'.
I looked up lainata and it says it means both 'to borrow' and 'to lend'. How do I know which one it is here?
The clue is in the question word! Because the sentence uses keneltä (from whom), it has to mean 'borrow'. If you wanted to ask 'Who do you lend money to?', you would use the 'to whom' form: Kenelle te lainaatte rahaa?
Why is the word for money rahaa instead of just raha?
Rahaa is in the partitive case (notice the extra -a at the end). We use the partitive here because money is treated as an uncountable mass. You are asking about borrowing an unspecified amount of money ('some money'), rather than one whole, countable object.
Why does the verb end in -tte (lainaatte)?
The verb ending must match the subject. Here, the subject is te (you, plural or formal). Verbs paired with te always take the -tte ending. If you were asking just one person informally (sinä), it would be Keneltä sinä lainaat rahaa?