Learn Finnish: Näkeekö valokuvaaja minut, jos minä seison sinun takanasi? - Does the photographer see me if I stand behind you?

Näkeekö valokuvaaja minut, jos minä seison sinun takanasi?

Does the photographer see me if I stand behind you?

Breakdown of Näkeekö valokuvaaja minut, jos minä seison sinun takanasi?

Questions & Answers about Näkeekö valokuvaaja minut, jos minä seison sinun takanasi?

Why does takana (behind) become takanasi in this sentence?

When a postposition is used with a personal pronoun (like sinun), the postposition must take a possessive suffix. Because the pronoun is the second-person singular sinun, we add the matching suffix -si to the end of takana, creating sinun takanasi.

Could I drop the word sinun and just say jos minä seison takanasi?

Yes! With first and second-person pronouns (I, you, we), you can safely drop the genitive pronoun. The suffix -si already tells us that it means "behind you", so takanasi works perfectly on its own.

Why is the word for "me" minut instead of the partitive form minua?

The verb nähdä (to see) takes a total object here, meaning the action is complete and the photographer sees all of you. Personal pronouns have a special total object form that ends in -t, making minä into minut. If the sentence were negative (like "doesn't see me"), you would use the partitive minua.

How does näkeekö form a question?