Word
Utelias lapsi kuuli ovikellon ja arvasi lähettäjän.
Meaning
The curious child heard the doorbell and guessed the sender.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Utelias lapsi kuuli ovikellon ja arvasi lähettäjän.
ja
and
lapsi
child
kuulla
to hear
arvata
to guess
Questions & Answers about Utelias lapsi kuuli ovikellon ja arvasi lähettäjän.
Why are both ovikellon and lähettäjän in the genitive case?
They are the direct objects of the verbs kuuli (heard) and arvasi (guessed). In Finnish, a total object of a normal affirmative action takes the accusative case. For singular nouns, this looks exactly like the genitive case, ending in -n.
How do the verbs kuulla and arvata change to become kuuli and arvasi?
kuulla is a type 3 verb; its stem is kuul-, and you just add the past tense -i to get kuuli. arvata is a type 4 verb; in the past tense, the stem's final -a- turns into an -s- before the -i, giving you arvasi.
How is the word lähettäjä formed?
It is built from the verb lähettää (to send). Adding the ending -jä (or -ja depending on vowel harmony) turns a verb into a noun for the person doing the action, exactly like adding "-er" in English to get "sender".
The current lesson is about joku and jokin. How would I say the child guessed "someone" or "something"?