Breakdown of Mä oikeastaan tiiän, et ne tulee takas.
minä
I
ne
they / those (non-human) / they (of people)
tietää
to know
tulla
to come
että
that (conjunction)
takaisin
back (direction, returning)
oikeastaan
actually
Questions & Answers about Mä oikeastaan tiiän, et ne tulee takas.
Why are että and takaisin written as et and takas here?
This sentence is written in everyday spoken Finnish. In casual speech, common function words and adverbs are heavily reduced to make them faster to say. The conjunction että (that) becomes et, and the adverb takaisin (back) becomes takas.
What is the standard written form of tiiän, and why is it spelled this way?
The standard written form is tiedän (I know), from the verb tietää. In spoken Finnish, the weak consonant d is very commonly dropped from the middle of words, smoothly turning tiedän into tiiän.
Why does the verb tulee look singular when the subject ne means "they"?
In standard written Finnish, you would say he tulevat (for people) or ne tulevat (for things). However, a major rule of spoken Finnish is that ne is used for both people and things, and the verb always drops the plural ending, matching the 3rd-person singular form instead. So, it becomes ne tulee.
How is the word oikeastaan formed?
Oikeastaan is an adverb that translates to "actually" or "as a matter of fact". It is built from the adjective oikea (right/correct). You will see this -staan or -stään ending on a few other adjectives to form adverbs, though it is best learned as a set vocabulary word.
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