Breakdown of Kenenköhän maalaus tämä on?
tämä
this
olla
to be
kenen
whose
maalaus
painting (painted artwork)
Questions & Answers about Kenenköhän maalaus tämä on?
Why does the clitic -köhän attach to kenen instead of the verb on?
In Finnish, pragmatic clitics like -köhän (which adds the meaning "I wonder") attach to the word that is in focus. In a question, the question word itself is the focus, so it sits at the beginning of the sentence and takes the clitic.
Why is the clitic spelled -köhän here instead of -kohan?
This is due to vowel harmony. The word it attaches to is kenen. Because the vowel e acts as a front vowel when no back vowels (a, o, u) are present in the word, the clitic must also use front vowels, making it -köhän.
Just as a refresher, what is the base form of the word kenen?
The base word is kuka (who). Kenen is its genitive form, meaning "whose".
Why doesn't the verb on move to the front to form the question?
Since the sentence already starts with a question word (kenen), the verb doesn't need to move. You only put the verb at the beginning when forming a yes/no question by attaching the -ko / -kö clitic directly to the verb.
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