Questions & Answers about Onko kaupungissa rakenteilla uusia taloja?
What does rakenteilla mean literally, and how is it formed?
Rakenteilla translates to "under construction." It is formed from the verb rakentaa (to build) put into the plural adessive case (-illa). It acts as an adverbial showing that a process is currently ongoing.
The lesson mentions these ongoing process words often take a possessive suffix. Why doesn't rakenteilla have one here?
Words describing an ongoing process usually take a possessive suffix when the action is tied to a specific owner (e.g., hänellä on projekti tekeillään, "he has a project underway"). Here, the building process is general and passive, so no possessive suffix is used.
Why is the subject uusia taloja in the partitive case at the end of the sentence?
This is an existential ("there is/are") sentence. In Finnish, these usually introduce the location first and put the subject at the end. Because "new houses" is an indefinite amount (some new houses, rather than specific ones), it takes the plural partitive case.
Since the subject is plural ("new houses"), why is the verb singular (onko instead of ovatko)?
In Finnish existential sentences, the verb is strictly frozen in the third-person singular (on). Even though uusia taloja is plural, the verb does not become ovat.