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Questions & Answers about Puhutko sinä suomea?
Why is there a "-ko" at the end of "Puhutko"?
The suffix -ko (or -kö) is added to a word to turn a statement into a yes/no question. Here, it is attached to the verb puhut (you speak) to make Puhutko (do you speak?).
Why is the word for Finnish "suomea" instead of just "suomi"?
The verb puhua (to speak) requires the language being spoken to be in the partitive case. This case is used for incomplete actions or uncountable things, like speaking a language. We form it here by adding the ending -a.
Wait, "suomi" ends in "i", so shouldn't the partitive be "suomia"?
That is a very logical guess! However, in Finnish, many older words that end in -i change that -i to an -e- before you add grammatical endings. So suomi becomes the stem suome-, and then we add the partitive -a to get suomea.
Could I just say "Puhutko suomea?" without "sinä"?
Yes, absolutely! Because the verb puhut already has the -t ending that means "you" (singular), the pronoun sinä is optional. Including it just adds a little bit of emphasis.
Why isn't "suomea" capitalized here?