Breakdown of Paketti on joltakin tuntemattomalta, mutta minulla on arvaus.
olla
to be
minä
I
mutta
but
paketti
the package
Questions & Answers about Paketti on joltakin tuntemattomalta, mutta minulla on arvaus.
How do we get joltakin from the word joku?
The pronoun joku (someone) is tricky because it inflects differently than normal words. To say "from someone", we use the ablative case ending -lta. The first part jo- gets the ending, becoming jolta-, and the second part -ku turns into the suffix -kin. Together, they make joltakin.
Why are both joltakin and tuntemattomalta in the ablative (-lta) case?
In Finnish, modifiers must match the case of the word they describe. Because the package is "from" someone, the pronoun joltakin takes the -lta (from) ending. The adjective describing them, tuntematon (unknown), must also take the -lta ending, becoming tuntemattomalta.
How does the word tuntematon change into tuntemattomalta?
Words ending in -ton or -tön (which usually mean "without" something) change their ending to -ttoma- or -ttömä- when adding a case suffix. So tuntematon (unknown) changes to the stem tuntemattoma- before adding the -lta ending.
Why does the sentence use minulla on instead of a verb for "to have"?