Breakdown of Onko ne jumissa pimeydessä?
olla
to be
ne
they / those (non-human) / they (of people)
pimeys
darkness
jumissa
stuck
Questions & Answers about Onko ne jumissa pimeydessä?
Why is the singular verb onko used with the plural pronoun ne ("they")?
In spoken and casual Finnish, the third-person plural pronoun takes the third-person singular verb form. Instead of the standard written Finnish ovatko he (are they), you will almost always hear onko ne in everyday speech.
Doesn't ne mean "those" for things, not people?
In standard written Finnish, yes: he is used for people ("they") and ne is for things or animals. However, spoken Finnish heavily favors using ne for people as well.
Why does the word for "stuck" (jumissa) have the "in" ending (-ssa)?
Jumissa comes from the noun jumi, which means a jam or blockage. Finnish often describes states of being by using the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä, meaning "in"). So being "stuck" is literally expressed as being "in a jam".
How is pimeydessä (in the darkness) formed?
It starts with the adjective pimeä (dark). The suffix -ys turns it into the noun pimeys (darkness). When adding the "in" ending (-ssä), nouns ending in -ys change their stem to -yde- before the case ending, resulting in pimeydessä.
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