Questions & Answers about Mä ehdottais leffaa.
How do we know ehdottais means "I would suggest" when there's no personal ending?
In spoken Finnish (puhekieli), the first-person conditional ending -in is often dropped, turning the standard ehdottaisin into just ehdottais. Because the verb no longer has an -n ending to tell you it's "I", using the pronoun mä becomes mandatory.
Can ehdottais also mean "he/she would suggest"?
Yes! The standard third-person form ehdottaisi also usually loses its final -i in spoken Finnish, becoming ehdottais. Since the spoken forms for "I would" and "he/she would" become identical, you have to rely entirely on the pronoun (like mä or se) to know who is doing the action.
What would this sentence be in standard written Finnish?
It would be Minä ehdottaisin elokuvaa. This sentence is heavily colloquial from start to finish: it uses mä for minä, the slang word leffaa instead of elokuvaa, and the shortened conditional verb.
Why is leffaa in the partitive case?
The verb ehdottaa (to suggest) usually takes the partitive case for the thing being suggested. You aren't doing a direct, completed physical action to the movie; you are just bringing it up as an idea or an unbounded activity.
Learn Mä ehdottais leffaa and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free