Breakdown of Mennään mielenosoitukseen! Siellä on jo monta kaveria.
olla
to be
siellä
there
mennä
to go
jo
already
moni
many (a)
kaveri
mate, buddy
mielenosoitus
demonstration
Questions & Answers about Mennään mielenosoitukseen! Siellä on jo monta kaveria.
Why do we use monta kaveria here instead of the plural monia kavereita?
The word for 'many' is moni. In an existential sentence (stating what is somewhere), moni behaves like a number. Just as you say kaksi kaveria (two friends) with a partitive singular noun, you use the irregular partitive singular form monta followed by the partitive singular kaveria. The plural form monia kavereita is used in other roles, for example as an object: Näen monia kavereita (I see many friends).
Since monta kaveria means multiple people, why is the verb singular (on) rather than plural (ovat)?
There are two rules at play here, and both require a singular verb. First, this is an existential sentence starting with a location (Siellä), which typically uses the singular on. Second, subjects that are in the partitive case (like monta kaveria) always take a singular verb in Finnish, no matter how many people are involved.
How is the word mielenosoitukseen built?
The base word is mielenosoitus (demonstration), which literally comes from mieli (mind) and osoitus (showing). For words ending in -us, the stem changes to -ukse- before adding endings. To say 'to the demonstration' (illative case), we add -en to the stem, resulting in mielenosoitukseen.
Why does mennään translate to 'let's go' if it is the passive form of mennä?
In modern Finnish, the spoken passive form is the standard way to suggest doing something together as a group. While it technically means 'is gone' or 'one goes', using the passive is exactly how native speakers say 'let's do something' in this context.
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