Word
Mä en tiedä, kuka toi tyyppi on.
Meaning
I don't know who that guy is.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Mä en tiedä, kuka toi tyyppi on.
olla
to be
kuka
who
ei
no / not (negative verb)
tietää
to know
Questions & Answers about Mä en tiedä, kuka toi tyyppi on.
What are mä and toi short for in standard written Finnish?
Mä is the spoken language (puhekieli) version of minä (I), and toi is the spoken version of tuo (that). In textbooks and formal writing, this sentence would be Minä en tiedä, kuka tuo tyyppi on.
Is tyyppi a slang word?
It literally translates to 'type', but in casual Finnish it is extremely common to use it to mean 'guy', 'dude', or 'person'. Saying toi tyyppi (that guy) fits perfectly with the relaxed tone of the spoken pronouns mä and toi.
Why is there a comma before kuka?
In Finnish, a comma is strictly required to separate the main sentence (Mä en tiedä) from a subordinate clause (kuka toi tyyppi on). Even though we are writing down casual spoken Finnish here, standard punctuation rules still apply.
Why does the word order in the second half match a direct question?
In English, the word order changes in an indirect question (from 'who is that guy?' to 'who that guy is'). Finnish is much simpler here: an indirect question keeps the exact same word order as a direct question (Kuka toi tyyppi on?).