Breakdown of Köysi on veneessä, kun sinä ohjaat.
olla
to be
sinä
you
kun
when (conjunction)
vene
boat
ohjata
to steer
köysi
rope
Questions & Answers about Köysi on veneessä, kun sinä ohjaat.
Why is there a comma before kun?
In Finnish, you almost always put a comma between a main clause and a subordinate clause. Since kun (when) starts a subordinate time clause, the comma right before it is required by Finnish grammar rules, even though we wouldn't use one in English here.
The word for boat is vene, so why does veneessä have an extra 'e' before the ending?
Vene is a Finnish word ending in 'e'. When you add a case ending like the 'in' case (-ssä) to these specific words, the final 'e' doubles. So the dictionary word vene turns into the stem venee-, and adding -ssä makes it veneessä.
What is the dictionary form of the verb ohjaat?
The dictionary form is ohjata (to steer or control). This is a Type 4 verb (verbs ending in -ata, -ota, etc.). To find the stem, the 't' drops out and the 'a' doubles, giving us ohjaa-. Then you just add the -t personal ending for sinä.
Do I have to include the word sinä in the kun clause?
No, you could just say kun ohjaat. Because the verb ending -t already tells us exactly who is doing the action, dropping the pronoun sinä is perfectly correct and very common in everyday Finnish.
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