Breakdown of Millainen sirkus kaupungissa on?
olla
to be
kaupunki
city
millainen
what kind of
sirkus
the circus
Questions & Answers about Millainen sirkus kaupungissa on?
Could I use minkälainen instead of millainen in this sentence?
Yes, you can. Millainen and minkälainen both mean "what kind of" and are completely interchangeable here. Both are in the basic nominative case to match the subject of the sentence, sirkus.
Why does the word for city, kaupunki, change to kaupungissa?
Adding the inessive ending -ssa (meaning "in") closes the final syllable of the word. This triggers consonant gradation, which forces the strong -nk- in kaupunki to soften into the weak -ng- in kaupungissa.
Why does the verb on come at the very end of the sentence?
Finnish questions always start with the question word or phrase, which here is Millainen sirkus. The rest of the sentence follows the rules for Finnish location statements, where the location often precedes the verb. Therefore, "in the city is" becomes kaupungissa on.
How would this sentence change if I wanted to ask about plural "circuses"?
Because this sentence states that something exists in a location, it acts as an existential sentence. For a plural subject in this type of sentence, you must use the partitive plural, making it Millaisia sirkuksia kaupungissa on? Notice that the verb on stays in the singular "is" form even when asking about multiple circuses.