Breakdown of Kävelen pääkadulla, jolla on kaksi ravintolaa ja yksi parturi.
olla
to be
ja
and
kävellä
to walk
ravintola
restaurant
yksi
one
kaksi
two
joka
who / which (relative pronoun)
pääkatu
main street
parturi
barber
Questions & Answers about Kävelen pääkadulla, jolla on kaksi ravintolaa ja yksi parturi.
Why is the relative pronoun jolla instead of just joka?
The relative pronoun needs to match the role it plays in the new clause. It refers to pääkadulla (on the main street), which is in the adessive case (-lla, meaning "on"). Because we are talking about what is "on the street", joka must also take the -lla ending, becoming jolla ("on which").
Why does jolla on translate to "which has" here?
Finnish doesn't have a direct verb for "to have". Instead, it uses a structure that literally means "on someone/something is". Just as minulla on means "I have" (literally "on me is"), jolla on means "which has" (literally "on which is").
Why is there a "d" in pääkadulla when the word for street is katu?
This is due to consonant gradation. When you add the ending -lla to katu, it closes the final syllable. This causes the strong consonant t to weaken into a d, changing katu to kadulla.
Why is ravintolaa in the partitive case, but parturi is not?
In Finnish, any number greater than one requires the noun following it to be in the partitive singular case. That is why kaksi is followed by ravintolaa. However, the number one (yksi) does not trigger the partitive case, so parturi remains in its basic nominative form.
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