Questions & Answers about Kuka istuu keskellä sohvaa?
Why is "sohva" in the partitive case (sohvaa) here?
In this sentence, keskellä acts as a preposition meaning "in the middle of". Most prepositions in Finnish require the word that follows them to be in the partitive case. Since the base word is sohva, its partitive form is sohvaa.
I've also seen keskellä used after a word. Can we say sohvan keskellä instead?
Yes, you can! The word keskellä is flexible and can be both a preposition (coming before the word) and a postposition (coming after). When used as a preposition, it takes the partitive case (keskellä sohvaa). If used as a postposition, it takes the genitive "-n" case instead (sohvan keskellä). Both mean exactly the same thing.
Does the verb istuu mean "sits" or "is sitting"?
It can mean both! Finnish does not have a separate continuous tense like the English "is doing". The present tense verb istuu covers both "sits" as a general habit and "is sitting" right now. The context of the conversation tells you which one it is.
Why does kuka take the singular verb form istuu if we don't know how many people are on the sofa?
Just like in English where we ask "Who is sitting?" rather than "Who are sitting?", the Finnish question word kuka (who) is grammatically singular. Therefore, it takes the third-person singular form of the verb, which is istuu. If you knew for sure it was multiple people, you could use the plural ketkä istuvat, but kuka istuu is the standard default.