Breakdown of Voitko selittää, mikä ongelman syy on?
olla
to be
mikä
what
ongelma
problem
voida
can, to be able to
selittää
to explain
syy
reason
Questions & Answers about Voitko selittää, mikä ongelman syy on?
How does the word order work in the indirect question "mikä ongelman syy on"?
In a Finnish indirect question, the question word (here, mikä) must come first, right after the comma. After that, the rest of the clause usually follows a standard statement word order. Because the subject here is ongelman syy (the problem's reason), the verb on (is) naturally falls at the very end of the sentence.
Is the comma before "mikä" mandatory?
Yes! Unlike English, where you wouldn't put a comma before "what" in this sentence, Finnish punctuation rules require it. You must separate the main clause (Voitko selittää) from the indirect question clause (mikä ongelman syy on) with a comma.
Why does the Finnish sentence literally say "the problem's reason" instead of "reason for the problem"?
Finnish rarely uses prepositions like "for" to link two nouns together. Instead, it relies on the genitive case (possession) by adding -n. By changing ongelma (problem) to ongelman, you are literally saying "the problem's reason" (ongelman syy). This is the standard way to express "the reason for..." in Finnish.
Why use "mikä" instead of "mitä" for "what" here?
You use the basic nominative form mikä because the answer you are looking for is a specific, countable thing: a reason (syy). You would use the partitive form mitä if you were asking about an uncountable mass (like water or love), or if the main verb of the clause required the partitive case. Since syy is countable and the verb is just on (is), mikä is correct.
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