Word
Kaupunki on kaukana, ja kukaan ei tiedä, missä olemme.
Meaning
The city is far away, and nobody knows where we are.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Kaupunki on kaukana, ja kukaan ei tiedä, missä olemme.
olla
to be
ja
and
missä
where
kaupunki
city
Questions & Answers about Kaupunki on kaukana, ja kukaan ei tiedä, missä olemme.
Why is the word order kukaan ei instead of ei kukaan?
Both mean 'nobody', but the word order follows normal Finnish sentence structure. Because kukaan is the subject of the sentence, it comes before the negative verb ei, exactly like how you would say hän ei tiedä (he does not know).
Why is the verb tiedä instead of tietää?
In negative sentences, the main verb drops its personal ending. Because of the negative word ei, tietää loses its ending and goes through consonant gradation (the strong -t- becomes a weak -d-), resulting in tiedä.
Could we use ketään instead of kukaan here?
No, because 'nobody' is the subject of this sentence (the one who does not know). Kukaan is the nominative subject form. You use the partitive form ketään when nobody is the object of the action, like in en näe ketään (I do not see anybody).
What kind of word is kaukana?
Kaukana means 'far away'. It actually has an old location ending -na, but at this level, it is best to memorize it as a fixed adverb. You might also recognize its variations for movement, like kaukaa (from far away) and kauas (to far away).