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Questions & Answers about Herään aikaisin keskiviikkona.
Why does keskiviikko have -na at the end?
The -na ending is called the essive case. When you want to say that something happens on a certain day of the week, you add -na (or -nä) to the end of the day. So, keskiviikko is "Wednesday", and keskiviikkona means "on Wednesday".
Where is the word for "I" in this sentence?
In Finnish, the ending of the verb tells you who is doing the action. The -n at the end of herään means "I". Because the ending already gives us this information, you don't usually need to say the pronoun minä (I) unless you want to emphasize it.
The dictionary form is herätä. Why does it change to herää- before adding the -n?
Herätä (to wake up) belongs to a group of verbs ending in -ta or -tä (verb type 4). To find the base (stem) for these verbs, you drop the -tä and add an extra -ä before attaching your personal ending. So, herätä becomes the stem herää-, and adding -n for "I" gives us herään.
Does the word keskiviikko literally mean "middle of the week"?
Yes, it does! It is a compound word made of keski (middle) and viikko (week). So literally, Wednesday is "midweek" in Finnish.