Breakdown of Opettaja suosittelee kauppaa, jossa on erinomainen valikoima.
olla
to be
opettaja
teacher
kauppa
shop
suositella
to recommend
joka
who / which (relative pronoun)
erinomainen
excellent
valikoima
selection
Questions & Answers about Opettaja suosittelee kauppaa, jossa on erinomainen valikoima.
Why is the relative pronoun jossa instead of just joka?
Jossa is the inessive (in) form of the relative pronoun joka. Because the sentence literally says "in which is an excellent selection", we add the -ssa ending to the pronoun to mean "in which".
The English translation says "which has". Why does the Finnish sentence use jossa on?
Finnish doesn't have a direct verb for "to have". Instead, it uses a location ending plus the verb on (is). To say the shop has a selection, you literally say the selection is in the shop. So, "which has" translates to jossa on (in which is).
Why is the word for shop in the partitive case (kauppaa) instead of the basic form (kauppa)?
The verb suositella (to recommend) is a partitive verb. This means it always requires the object you are recommending to take the partitive case ending, so kauppa becomes kauppaa.
Why is erinomainen valikoima in the basic form instead of the partitive case?
In the Finnish "having" structure (like jossa on), the thing that is possessed is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. Because of this, erinomainen valikoima stays in the basic nominative case.
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