Questions & Answers about Tämä talo on meidän.
Why does "meidän" mean "ours" here instead of "our"?
In English, we use "our" before a noun (our house) and "ours" on its own (the house is ours). Finnish keeps it simple: meidän is used for both! You can say meidän talo (our house) or Tämä talo on meidän (This house is ours).
I see the genitive "-n" ending on "meidän", but where did the "idä" come from?
Could I say "Tämä on meidän talo" instead?
Yes, but it changes the emphasis slightly, just like in English. Tämä on meidän talo means "This is our house", whereas this sentence, Tämä talo on meidän, means "This house is ours".
Is "tämä" also in the genitive case here?
No, tämä (this) and talo (house) are both in the basic nominative case because they are the main subject of the sentence. Only meidän is in the genitive case to show who owns the house. If you wanted to say "this house's" (for example, "this house's door"), then you would add the genitive -n to those words too, making it tämän talon.
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