Learn Finnish: Anteeksi! Missä koulu on? - Excuse me! Where is the school?

Finnish does not have articles like "a" or "the". The word koulu can mean "school", "a school", or "the school" depending on the context. Here, since you are asking about a specific place, it translates to "the school".

The word order here is literally "Where school is". Can I say Missä on koulu instead?

Yes, you can say Missä on koulu, but Missä koulu on is much more common and sounds very natural. Unlike English, Finnish does not force the verb and subject to swap places in a question.

I thought anteeksi meant "sorry". Does it also mean "excuse me"?

Yes! You can use anteeksi to apologize when you make a mistake, but it is also the perfect word to politely get someone's attention before asking a question, just like "excuse me" in English.

Why does the word for "where" (missä) end in -ssä?

The ending -ssä means "in". The word missä actually comes from the base word mikä (what). So, asking missä is literally asking "in what", which is how Finnish expresses "where".