Questions & Answers about Keräämme roskat noilta pihoilta.
Why does the sentence use noilta instead of niiltä for 'from those'?
Noilta comes from the pronoun nuo, which means 'those' over there (things you can physically point to). Niiltä comes from ne, which is usually for things you have already talked about or are more abstract. Since we are physically picking up trash from specific yards we can see, noilta is the natural choice here.
How do we get noilta and pihoilta from their base words?
Both words need the plural marker -i- and the case ending -lta. The base word nuo changes its stem to noi- before adding -lta. The word piha (yard) drops its final -a into an -o- before the plural -i-, giving us the stem pihoi-, and then we add -lta.
Why is 'from the yards' translated with the -lta ending rather than -sta (pihoista)?
The word piha (yard) uses the 'outer' local cases (-lla, -lta, -lle) because it is considered an open, outside surface rather than an enclosed space. Therefore, 'from the yard' is pihalta, and in the plural it becomes pihoilta.
What is the dictionary form of keräämme and why does the stem look like that?
The dictionary form is kerätä (to collect). This is a Type 4 verb. To find the stem, the final -tä is removed, and the remaining vowel is doubled: kerä- becomes kerää-. Then, the 'we' ending -mme is added.
Why is 'trash' in the plural form (roskat) here?
In English, 'trash' is usually an uncountable singular word. In Finnish, roska literally means a single piece of garbage. When you are collecting a bunch of trash, you use the plural form roskat.
Learn Keräämme roskat noilta pihoilta and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free