Breakdown of Mikä on tämän taulun lähtöhinta?
tämä
this
olla
to be
mikä
what
taulu
painting
lähtöhinta
starting price
Questions & Answers about Mikä on tämän taulun lähtöhinta?
Why is it mikä and not mitä in this sentence?
When asking 'What is [X]?', you use the nominative mikä because the subject you are asking about (lähtöhinta) is a specific, countable concept. The partitive mitä would be used for uncountable mass nouns or abstract ideas, or when the verb specifically requires it.
Can you break down the compound word lähtöhinta?
It is made of lähtö (departure, start) and hinta (price). Lähtö comes from the verb lähteä (to leave). Finnish frequently uses lähtö to mean 'starting' in compound words, such as lähtökohta (starting point).
Why do tämän and taulun come before the word for price?
They are in the genitive case (showing ownership, ending in -n), which translates to 'of this painting'. In Finnish, genitive modifiers almost always sit directly before the noun they modify, unlike English which usually puts 'of' after the noun.
If this sentence used a case ending, would both parts of the compound noun lähtöhinta inflect like compound numerals do?
No! Unlike the compound numbers you are learning about in this lesson (where every part changes, like kaksikymmentä becoming kahdessakymmenessä), normal compound nouns only inflect at the very end. For example, 'at the starting price' would be lähtöhinnalla; the word lähtö stays exactly the same.
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