Breakdown of Omistaako hän todella tuon talon?
tuo
that
talo
house
hän
he / she
todella
really (very, intensifier)
Questions & Answers about Omistaako hän todella tuon talon?
How would I rewrite this sentence to emphasize 'that house' using the se, mikä structure from this lesson?
To ask 'Is that house what he really owns?', you would say: Onko tuo talo se, minkä hän todella omistaa? Notice that the relative pronoun mikä takes the genitive-accusative form (minkä) because it serves as the total object of the verb omistaa in the subordinate clause.
Why is the object tuon talon in the genitive-accusative case instead of the partitive? Doesn't the uncertainty of a question trigger the partitive?
No, asking a question doesn't trigger the partitive case the way a negative sentence does. Since the verb omistaa (to own) describes an action that encompasses the entire object, it requires the total object form (tuon talon). You are asking about the ownership of the whole house.
If I wanted to ask 'Is it that house that he really owns?' without using a pseudo-cleft, how would I do it?
You can move the object phrase to the front and attach the question clitic to its first word: Tuonko talon hän todella omistaa? This is a much more common and natural way to emphasize a specific word in everyday speech than using the full se, minkä structure.
How could we shift the focus to ask 'Is it really true that he owns it?'
You can move the adverb to the front of the sentence and attach the question clitic -ko to it: Todellako hän omistaa tuon talon? In Finnish, the word carrying the -ko or -kö clitic is always placed at the very beginning of the clause to mark the focus of the question.