Word
Joko minä käyn suutarilla tai sinä käyt.
Meaning
Either I visit the cobbler or you do.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Joko minä käyn suutarilla tai sinä käyt.
minä
I
sinä
you
tai
or
käydä
to visit, to go (and come back)
Questions & Answers about Joko minä käyn suutarilla tai sinä käyt.
Why does the word suutarilla end in -lla instead of a movement ending like -lle?
The verb käydä (to visit) is a bit special. Even though you travel to get there, käydä requires a static location case (meaning 'where you are') rather than a destination case (meaning 'where you are going'). We use the adessive ending -lla (at/on) instead of the inessive -ssa (in/inside) because a suutari (cobbler) is a person or profession. In Finnish, you visit 'at' a person, not 'inside' them.
How does the 'either... or...' structure work here?
You use the pair of conjunctions joko ... tai ... to express 'either ... or ...'. They frame the two alternative actions: joko minä käyn (either I visit) and tai sinä käyt (or you visit).
Why doesn't the Finnish sentence use a word for 'do' at the end, like the English translation does?
English uses 'do' as a substitute verb to avoid repeating the word 'visit'. Finnish doesn't use dummy substitute verbs like this. Instead, you simply repeat the main verb conjugated for the new subject: sinä käyt (you visit). The location (suutarilla) is already understood from the first half of the sentence, so it doesn't need to be repeated.
Can I drop the pronouns minä and sinä in this sentence?