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Questions & Answers about Paljonko omena maksaa?
Why does the word for "how much" (paljonko) have -ko at the end?
The base word is paljon, which means "a lot" or "much". The -ko ending is a question marker. When you attach it to paljon, it turns the word into the question "how much?".
Does maksaa mean "to pay" or "to cost"?
It means both! You can usually tell the correct meaning from the context. In this sentence, because the subject is an apple (omena), it makes sense that the apple "costs" a certain amount, rather than the apple "paying" for something.
Why is omena in its basic form and not in the partitive case here?
Even though this lesson focuses on using the partitive case for quantities and numbers, there are no numbers in this specific sentence yet. Omena is simply the subject of the sentence (the thing that costs money), so it stays in its basic dictionary form.
Where is the word for "the" in this sentence?
Finnish doesn't have articles like "a", "an", or "the". The single word omena can translate to "an apple" or "the apple" depending entirely on the context of the conversation.