Ostatko paljon ruokaa marraskuussa vai joulukuussa?
Do you buy a lot of food in November or December?
Breakdown of Ostatko paljon ruokaa marraskuussa vai joulukuussa?
vai
or (in questions)
ruoka
food
paljon
a lot
ostaa
to buy
marraskuu
November
joulukuu
December
Questions & Answers about Ostatko paljon ruokaa marraskuussa vai joulukuussa?
Why do the months marraskuu and joulukuu both end in -ssa here?
To say that something happens in a specific month, Finnish adds the inessive ending -ssa or -ssä (meaning "in" or "inside") directly to the name of the month. Since marraskuu (November) and joulukuu (December) both contain back vowels (like u), they take the -ssa ending to become marraskuussa (in November) and joulukuussa (in December).
What does the -ko in ostatko do?
It turns the verb into a question! Ostat means "you buy". By adding the question particle -ko, it becomes ostatko ("do you buy?"). In Finnish, the word with the question particle is usually moved to the very beginning of the sentence.
Why is the word for food written as ruokaa instead of the basic form ruoka?
The word paljon (a lot / much) always forces the noun that comes immediately after it to be in the partitive case. To express an undefined amount of food, the basic word ruoka gets an extra -a at the end to become ruokaa.
The word for "or" here is vai. Could I use tai instead?
Not in this sentence! In Finnish, vai is specifically used in questions where you are giving the listener a direct choice between options (Option A or Option B?). Because you are asking them to pick between November or December, you must use vai. Tai is used for "or" in regular statements, or in questions where you aren't forcing a strict choice.
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