Questions & Answers about Onko tämä olut alkoholiton?
How does the word alkoholiton get its meaning of alcohol-free?
It is formed from the noun alkoholi (alcohol) and the suffix -ton, which means without or -less. When added to a noun, it creates an adjective indicating a lack of that specific thing.
Why does this word use the suffix -ton instead of -tön?
This happens because of vowel harmony. The root word alkoholi contains the back vowels a and o. Because of this, the suffix must also use a back vowel, resulting in -ton. If the word only contained front vowels like ä or ö, or the neutral vowels e and i, it would take -tön instead.
Does the suffix -ton always attach straight to the basic dictionary form of a word?
Not always! For alkoholi, it attaches directly because it is a relatively modern loanword ending in a vowel. For many older native Finnish words, the suffix -ton attaches to the word's inflectional stem. This is the same stem you use when making the genitive form, right before adding the -n.
Just as a refresher, why is onko placed at the very front of this sentence?
In Finnish, a yes-or-no question is built by adding the question particle -ko or -kö to the main verb and moving that verb to the very beginning of the sentence. Here, the verb on (is) gets the -ko particle, creating onko.
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