Questions & Answers about Mikä kuukausi nyt on?
Since this lesson is about the inessive case (in a month), why aren't we using it for kuukausi here?
Because we are asking "What month is it?", not "In what month does something happen?". When you just want to identify the current month, Finnish uses the basic dictionary form for both the question word (mikä) and the noun (kuukausi). You would only use the inessive case (missä kuukaudessa) to ask when an event takes place.
Why isn't there a word for "it" in the Finnish sentence?
Finnish doesn't use placeholder subjects like "it" for time, weather, or dates the way English does. While English says "What month is it?", Finnish literally just asks "What month now is?" (Mikä kuukausi nyt on?).
Why do we use mikä instead of mitä for "what"?
Mikä is the basic form used when asking about a specific, whole thing that acts as the subject of the sentence. You would use mitä (the partitive form) if you were asking about uncountable things, abstract concepts, or the target of an action.
Is kuukausi a compound word?
Yes! It is made up of kuu (moon, which is also used as a short word for month) and kausi (period or season). So, kuukausi literally translates to "moon period".
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