Questions & Answers about Miksi kokous on toimistossa?
Why is the word order kokous on (the meeting is) instead of "is the meeting"?
In Finnish, when you start a sentence with a question word like miksi (why), the rest of the sentence usually keeps its normal statement word order. You don't need to swap the subject and the verb like you do in English!
What does the -ssa ending on toimistossa do?
It means "in" or "inside" (this is known as the inessive case). The base word is toimisto (office). By attaching -ssa to the end, it becomes "in the office".
Why does it use -ssa instead of -ssä?
This is a great time to remember vowel harmony! The base word toimisto contains the back vowel o. Because of this, any ending attached to it must also use a back vowel (a instead of ä), so it becomes -ssa.
Do I need to raise the pitch of my voice at the end of the sentence to show it's a question?
No, Finnish questions generally don't use a rising pitch at the end like English ones do. The question word miksi at the very beginning already does the whole job of telling the listener that you are asking a question.
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