Breakdown of Tämä tähtikuvio on kaunis. Se sijaitsee nimittäin lähellä Linnunrataa.
tämä
this
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
kaunis
beautiful
sijaita
to be located
lähellä
near
nimittäin
namely / because (explanatory adverb) / you see
Linnunrata
the Milky Way
tähtikuvio
constellation
Questions & Answers about Tämä tähtikuvio on kaunis. Se sijaitsee nimittäin lähellä Linnunrataa.
Why is nimittäin placed after the verb sijaitsee instead of at the beginning of the sentence?
Unlike the English 'because', nimittäin is almost never the first word in a clause. It is usually placed right after the first main constituent of the sentence, which is often the verb (as in Se sijaitsee nimittäin...) or the subject. It acts like the English 'you see' or 'namely', explaining the previous statement.
Why is Linnunrataa in the partitive case here?
The word lähellä (near) is versatile. It can act as a postposition requiring the genitive case before it (like Linnunradan lähellä). However, in this sentence, it is used as a preposition. When lähellä is placed before the noun it modifies, that noun must be in the partitive case, which gives us lähellä Linnunrataa.
What is the literal translation of Linnunrata (the Milky Way)?
It literally means 'the bird's path' or 'the bird's track' (linnun + rata). According to ancient Finnish mythology, people believed that birds migrated along the Milky Way to a warm place called Lintukoto at the edge of the sky.
What is the infinitive form of the verb sijaitsee?
The infinitive is sijaita (to be located). It is a type 4 verb ending in '-ita', so to conjugate it, you change the '-ta' to '-tse-' and add the personal ending, giving us sijaitsee for the third-person singular.
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