Questions & Answers about Me pääsemme kaupunkiin.
Why does the sentence use kaupunkiin ("into the city")?
The verb päästä (here as pääsemme) is a movement verb that means "to get to" or "to arrive at". In Finnish, when you express moving to a destination, you use the illative case (the "into" case). This is formed by adding -in to kaupunki.
Why doesn't the "nk" in kaupunki change to "ng" here, like it does in kaupungissa?
The illative case ("into") is a bit special: it uses the strong grade of the word. So the nk in the basic word kaupunki stays strong in kaupunkiin. The weak grade (ng) is used for endings that close the syllable, like the -ssa in kaupungissa.
Does pääsemme just mean "we go"?
Not exactly. While mennä means a simple "to go", the verb päästä implies successfully reaching a destination, being let in, or overcoming a hurdle. Here, Me pääsemme kaupunkiin feels more like "We manage to get to the city" or "We make it to the city."
How is the verb pääsemme formed?
The basic form of the verb is päästä. It belongs to verb type 3 (verbs ending in -sta or -stä). To conjugate it, you remove the final -tä, add an -e- to get the stem pääse-, and finally add the personal ending -mme for "we".
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