Breakdown of Minä ajan polkupyörällä sillan yli.
minä
I
ajaa
to drive
yli
past / over / across
silta
bridge
polkupyörä
bicycle
Questions & Answers about Minä ajan polkupyörällä sillan yli.
Why is polkupyörällä in the adessive case (-llä) if it translates to the English object "the bicycle"?
In English, you "ride a bicycle" using a direct object. In Finnish, you are literally "driving by means of a bicycle." The adessive case (-lla/-llä) is used for the instrument or vehicle you use to travel. Because of this, it is not treated as a grammatical object.
Since the current lesson is about partitive plural objects, why isn't there one in this sentence?
This sentence is a great reminder that what acts as an object in English isn't always an object in Finnish! Because you travel "by bike" (polkupyörällä), there is no direct object here. If you wanted to say "I drive cars" (referring to plural vehicles as an object), then you would use a partitive plural object: Minä ajan autoja.
Why is the word for bridge, silta, written here as sillan?
The word yli (over/across) is a postposition. Most Finnish postpositions require the noun right before them to be in the genitive case (-n). When adding the -n ending to silta, the consonants undergo consonant gradation from lt to ll, giving us sillan.
I thought the verb ajaa meant "to drive". Can it also mean "to ride"?
Yes! While you use ajaa for driving a car, it is also the standard verb for operating a bicycle or motorcycle. However, you wouldn't use it for riding an animal like a horse; that has its own verb, ratsastaa.
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