Breakdown of Talossamme on kaksikymmentäviisi kerrosta.
olla
to be
talo
house
kerros
floor (level of a building)
kaksikymmentäviisi
twenty-five
Questions & Answers about Talossamme on kaksikymmentäviisi kerrosta.
Why does the -mme go after the -ssa ending in talossamme?
In Finnish, the possessive suffix always comes at the very end of the word, after any case endings. So we start with the root talo (building), add the location ending -ssa (in), and finally add the possessive suffix -mme (our).
Could I also add the word meidän and say meidän talossamme?
Yes! Adding the pronoun meidän (our) is perfectly correct. However, because the -mme suffix already tells us the building is 'ours', the word meidän is optional. Dropping it is very common unless you want to emphasize that it is our building and not someone else's.
The English translation says 'Our building has', but why does this sentence use the verb on?
Finnish doesn't have a direct verb for 'to have'. Instead, it uses a location structure. Talossamme on... literally means 'In our building is...', which is the standard way to express that a place has certain features.
Why is the word for floors (kerrosta) in the partitive case instead of a normal plural?
In Finnish, any number greater than one must be followed by a noun in the partitive singular case. Since the number is twenty-five, the basic word kerros (floor) changes to its partitive form kerrosta, even though we translate it as a plural in English.