Questions & Answers about Nuo autot ovat meidän.
Why does the word for 'ours' end in -n?
The word meidän is the genitive (possessive) form of me (we). Just like adding an -n to a noun makes it possessive, personal pronouns follow a similar pattern. Me becomes meidän (our or ours).
Wait, doesn't meidän usually mean 'our'? How does it mean 'ours' here?
In English, we use different words depending on if a noun follows ('our cars') or not ('they are ours'). Finnish keeps it simple: meidän is used for both! It simply means that something belongs to us, no matter where it sits in the sentence.
Why is the word nuo used here instead of tuo?
Tuo means 'that' for a single object. Because we are talking about multiple cars (autot), we must use the plural form. Nuo is the plural of tuo, meaning 'those'.
Why do we use ovat instead of on?
Because the subject nuo autot (those cars) is plural. In Finnish, when the subject is a plural noun, the 'to be' verb must also match and be in its plural form, which is ovat (are).
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