Breakdown of Kuka teistä haluaa olla toimikunnan puheenjohtaja?
olla
to be
te
you (plural/formal)
kuka
who
haluta
to want
toimikunta
the committee
puheenjohtaja
the chairperson
Questions & Answers about Kuka teistä haluaa olla toimikunnan puheenjohtaja?
Why does the Finnish sentence use Kuka (who) when the English translation says 'Which'?
In English, we use 'which' to select from a limited group. In Finnish, when selecting from a group of people, you still use kuka (who). You only use mikä (which/what) for things, or kumpi if you are choosing between exactly two people.
How does the word teistä create the meaning 'of you'?
Teistä is the pronoun te (you, plural) in the elative case. The elative case (-sta/-stä) is used to express a subset or proportion, translating literally to 'out of you'. This is the standard way to say 'X of Y' when selecting from a group in Finnish.
Since teistä is plural, why is the verb haluaa in the singular form?
The verb always agrees with the grammatical subject of the sentence, which here is the question word Kuka (who). Because Kuka is singular, the verb takes the third-person singular form haluaa.
Why is puheenjohtaja in the nominative case instead of the partitive?
With the verb olla (to be), singular countable nouns used as a predicative (telling us what someone is) stay in the nominative case. You would use the partitive here only if the word were an uncountable noun or a plural.
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