Breakdown of Selitä minulle, mikä vika tässä on.
tämä
this
olla
to be
minä
I
mikä
what
selittää
to explain
vika
fault
Questions & Answers about Selitä minulle, mikä vika tässä on.
The second part is mikä vika tässä on. Does the word order change because it is an indirect question?
No, and that is the best part about indirect questions in Finnish! Unlike English, which flips words around (direct: "what is the fault?", indirect: "what the fault is"), Finnish keeps the exact same word order. A direct question would be Mikä vika tässä on? (What is the fault here?), and it stays exactly the same when attached to the main clause.
The translation says "here", but doesn't tässä mean "in this"? Why not use täällä?
In English we often say "what is wrong here", but in Finnish, when you are talking about a specific object, device, or situation right in front of you, you use tässä (in this). The word täällä refers to a broader physical location, like being "here" in a room or a city.
Does mikä vika literally translate to "what fault"?
Yes! While the natural English translation says "what the fault is", the Finnish phrase directly pairs the question word mikä (what) with the noun vika (fault, defect, or flaw). You can think of the whole clause literally as "what fault is in this".
Is selitä a command? Why does it only have one 't' when the dictionary form is selittää?
Yes, it is the imperative (command) form. To tell one person to do something, you take the "I" form of the verb and drop the -n. Because selittää (to explain) undergoes consonant gradation, the double 'tt' weakens to a single 't' in the "I" form (minä selitän). Drop the -n, and you get the command selitä.
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