Breakdown of Oliko ravintola auki vai kiinni?
olla
to be
vai
or (in questions)
ravintola
restaurant
auki
open
Questions & Answers about Oliko ravintola auki vai kiinni?
Why does the sentence start with oliko instead of just oli?
Oli is the past tense form of olla (to be) for a third-person subject like ravintola (the restaurant). To turn the statement 'the restaurant was' into the question 'was the restaurant?', we attach the question particle -ko directly to the verb.
Why is the word for 'or' vai here? Can I use tai?
You must use vai here because this is a question asking the listener to choose between specific options (open OR closed). The other word for 'or', tai, is used in normal statements rather than choice-based questions.
Could I change the word order to Ravintola oliko auki vai kiinni?
No. In Finnish, when you add the question particle -ko or -kö to a word to form a yes/no/choice question, that word must jump to the very beginning of the sentence. Therefore, oliko has to come first.
Do the words auki (open) and kiinni (closed) change if there are multiple restaurants?
No, they stay exactly the same. Unlike most descriptive adjectives in Finnish, auki and kiinni are fixed words that describe a state. They do not take plural endings or change to match the word they are describing.