Breakdown of Tiedätkö sä, kuka tää tyyppi on?
olla
to be
kuka
who
tietää
to know
sä
you (spoken, incl. sun, sua)
tää
this (spoken)
tyyppi
person / guy
Questions & Answers about Tiedätkö sä, kuka tää tyyppi on?
Do I need to include sä since tiedätkö already has the second-person ending?
In standard written Finnish, you can usually drop the pronoun sinä because the -t ending on the verb already tells us who is doing the action. However, in spoken Finnish, it is very common to keep the short pronoun sä for natural rhythm or emphasis.
Is tää just a shortened version of tämä?
Yes! In spoken Finnish, tämä (this) almost always becomes tää. It modifies the noun exactly the same way the standard word does, which is why we say tää tyyppi (this guy).
The word tyyppi usually means 'type'. Is it normal to use it to mean 'guy'?
Very normal. In casual contexts, tyyppi is the go-to informal word for a person, much like 'guy', 'dude', or 'person' in English. It fits perfectly with the relaxed, colloquial pronouns used in this sentence.
Tiedätkö sä uses a standard verb form with a spoken pronoun. Is this normal?
Yes, spoken Finnish is a spectrum. People often mix colloquial pronouns like sä and tää with standard verb forms like tiedätkö. In even faster or more relaxed speech, you will often hear the whole phrase squished together into forms like tiedäksä, tiiäksä, or tietsä.
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