Breakdown of Kysyin häneltä, onko poissaolo ongelma tänään.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
kysyä
to ask
tänään
today
ongelma
problem
poissaolo
absence
Questions & Answers about Kysyin häneltä, onko poissaolo ongelma tänään.
Why does the Finnish sentence use the present tense onko ('is') when the English translation says 'was'?
This is a major difference between Finnish and English reported speech! In English, we shift the tense back to match the main verb: 'I asked if it was'. In Finnish, you keep the exact tense the person originally used. Because the original question was 'Is the absence a problem?' (present tense), the reported version stays in the present tense: onko.
Why is 'him' translated as häneltä (the ablative 'from' case)?
In Finnish, you do not ask someone directly; you ask something from them. The verb kysyä (to ask) requires the person being asked to be in the ablative case, which ends in -lta or -ltä.
Where is the word for 'if' or 'whether' in this sentence?
Finnish doesn't use a separate word for 'if' in indirect yes/no questions. Instead, you take the verb being questioned (on, meaning 'is'), and add the question clitic -ko to get onko. Do not use jos here, because jos is only used for conditional 'if' statements like 'If it rains...'.
How is the word poissaolo formed?
It is a compound noun made of poissa (away or absent) and olo (being or state). Literally, it means the state of being away, which translates perfectly to 'absence'.
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