Questions & Answers about Näkemiin! Me olemme nyt ulkona.
I've also seen ulos used for "outside". Why is it ulkona here?
In Finnish, location words change depending on whether there is movement. You use ulkona when you are already in a static location (being outside). You use ulos when you are moving into that location (going outside). Since the sentence uses olemme (we are), there is no movement, so we use ulkona.
Is näkemiin a formal way to say goodbye?
Yes, näkemiin is the standard, slightly formal way to say "goodbye". It actually comes from the verb nähdä (to see) and literally means something like "until we see each other again". For a more casual goodbye with friends, you would use words like hei hei, moikka, or heippa.
Could I drop the word me and just say "Olemme nyt ulkona"?
Yes, absolutely! Because the verb ending in olemme already tells us that the subject is "we" (from the -mme ending), the pronoun me is completely optional. Including it just puts a little more emphasis on "we" or makes the sentence sound like standard written Finnish.
Does the word nyt (now) have to go before ulkona?
Finnish word order is quite flexible, but usually, words expressing time (like nyt) come before words expressing place (like ulkona). Saying "Me olemme ulkona nyt" would be understood perfectly, but putting the time word earlier in the sentence sounds much more natural to a native speaker.
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