Word
Tiedätkö, onko joukkue tietovisassa?
Meaning
Do you know if the team is at the trivia quiz?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Tiedätkö, onko joukkue tietovisassa?
olla
to be
tietää
to know
joukkue
team
tietovisa
trivia quiz
Questions & Answers about Tiedätkö, onko joukkue tietovisassa?
Why is there no word for "if" in the Finnish sentence?
In English, we use "if" or "whether" to introduce an indirect question. Finnish doesn't use a separate word for this. Instead, you attach the question ending -ko/-kö to the verb you are asking about, which in this case is on (is). So, "if the team is" becomes onko joukkue.
Why does the first verb end in -kö (Tiedätkö) but the second verb ends in -ko (onko)?
This is because of vowel harmony. The verb tiedät contains front vowels (i, e, ä), so it takes the front-vowel version of the ending: -kö. The verb on contains a back vowel (o), so it takes the back-vowel version: -ko.
Could I change the word order to "Tiedätkö, joukkue onko tietovisassa"?
No, that word order is incorrect. The rule for the -ko/-kö question ending is that the word it is attached to must always be moved to the very front of its clause. Since the second clause is asking if the team is there, onko has to be the first word after the comma.
What parts make up the word tietovisassa?