Breakdown of En tiedä, onko pipo taskuissa.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (negative verb)
tasku
pocket
tietää
to know
pipo
the beanie
Questions & Answers about En tiedä, onko pipo taskuissa.
Why is "if" translated using onko instead of the word jos?
In English, "if" is used for conditions ("If it rains...") and indirect questions ("I don't know if..."). Finnish uses jos only for conditions. For indirect yes/no questions (meaning "whether"), you add the question ending -ko or -kö to the verb. Onko literally means "is?", but translates here as "if it is".
Is pipo in the nominative case because it is a total object, as taught in this lesson?
No, pipo (beanie) is in the basic nominative case here because it is the subject of the clause onko pipo taskuissa (is the beanie in the pockets). The lesson's rule about total objects dropping their case endings doesn't apply here because the beanie is doing the action (being in the pockets).
How is the word taskuissa (in the pockets) formed?
It starts with the basic word tasku (pocket). First, the plural marker -i- is added to the stem to make taskui-. Then, the inessive case ending -ssa (meaning "in") is attached, giving us taskuissa.
Why does the verb onko come before pipo in the second part of the sentence?
In Finnish indirect questions, the word that has the question ending attached to it (in this case, the verb on + ko) must always be placed at the very beginning of its clause.
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