Questions & Answers about Polkupyörä on risteyksessä.
What is the dictionary form of risteyksessä and how does the word change here?
The basic form is risteys (intersection). For Finnish words ending in -ys (or -us), the stem changes to -ykse- (or -ukse-) before adding endings. So, risteys becomes the stem risteykse-, and then we add the inessive ending -ssä (in/at) to get risteyksessä.
Why does risteyksessä use the -ssä (in) ending when the English translation says "at"?
In Finnish, intersections are thought of as enclosed spaces or areas you are inside of, so they take the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä), meaning "in". While English says "at the intersection", Finnish literally says "in the intersection".
How is the word polkupyörä formed?
It is a compound word made of polku (path or trail) and pyörä (wheel or bike). Together they mean "bicycle", though Finns often just shorten it to pyörä in everyday speech.
Why isn't there a partitive object in this sentence, given the current lesson?
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