Breakdown of Pihalla on vain yksi koivu ja yksi mänty.
olla
to be
ja
and
piha
yard
yksi
one
vain
only
koivu
birch
mänty
pine
Questions & Answers about Pihalla on vain yksi koivu ja yksi mänty.
The sentence mentions just one birch (koivu). How would I use the -kko / -kkö suffix if there were a whole grove of birches in the yard?
You attach the suffix to the word stem. For koivu, the final vowel changes to an i, giving you koivikko (a birch grove). If the yard had a birch grove, the sentence would simply be Pihalla on koivikko.
How does this same suffix apply to mänty (pine) if there were a cluster of pines?
Just like with koivu, the final y in mänty changes to an i. Because of vowel harmony with the ä, you must use the front-vowel version of the suffix, resulting in männikkö (a pine grove).
Why does the sentence start with the location (Pihalla) instead of the subjects (koivu ja mänty)?
This is a classic existential sentence, which introduces new information about what exists in a certain place. In Finnish, these naturally start with the location (Pihalla), followed by the verb (on), and end with the new things being introduced.
English says 'in the yard'. Why does Finnish use the adessive case pihalla (on the yard) instead of the inessive pihassa?
Finnish typically treats a yard (piha) as an open, flat exterior surface rather than a three-dimensional enclosed container. Because of this, it takes the outer local case -lla rather than the inner local case -ssa.
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