Questions & Answers about Me pyydämme apua opettajalta.
Why does the word for teacher have the ending -lta here?
In Finnish, when you ask for something, you literally ask it from someone. That is why opettaja (teacher) gets the ablative ending -lta to become opettajalta (from the teacher). If you wanted to ask "From whom are we asking?", you would use the question word keneltä.
Why is the verb pyydämme spelled with a d?
The basic dictionary form of this verb is pyytää (to request). When we add the "we" ending -mme, it triggers a spelling rule called consonant gradation. This causes the strong -t- to soften into a -d-.
Why is the word for help apua instead of its basic form apu?
The verb pyytää usually requires the thing you are asking for to be in the partitive case. Also, help is an uncountable concept here. You are asking for some help rather than one countable item, which is a classic reason to use the partitive ending -a.
Could I use the verb kysyä to say "ask" in this sentence?
No, Finnish has two different verbs for asking. You use pyytää (which becomes pyydämme here) when you are requesting a thing or a favor, like help. You use kysyä when you are asking a question to get an answer or information.
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