Breakdown of Hänen rajapyykkinsä on sadan metrin päässä täältä.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
sata
one hundred
täältä
from here
metri
the meter
päässä
at a distance of
rajapyykki
the boundary marker
Questions & Answers about Hänen rajapyykkinsä on sadan metrin päässä täältä.
How do we form the distance phrase sadan metrin päässä?
To express how far away something is, Finnish uses a genitive phrase of measurement followed by the postposition päässä. Here, both sata (hundred) and metri (meter) take the genitive ending, becoming sadan metrin. The postposition päässä literally means "in the head of" or "at the end of", so the phrase translates word-for-word as "at the end of a hundred meters".
Why use päässä instead of päästä in this sentence?
Päässä is in the inessive case, which indicates a static location. You use it here because you are simply stating where the marker is currently located. If the sentence described an action starting from that distance (for example, "He shouted from a hundred meters away"), you would use the elative form päästä instead.
Why does this sentence use a "from" case for täältä when the main verb on is static?
Even though the boundary marker is stationary, the distance itself is measured starting from a specific reference point. Finnish uses the ablative case (täältä) or elative case (tästä) to establish that starting point, very much like saying "away from here" in English.
Why does rajapyykki need the possessive suffix -nsä when the sentence already starts with Hänen?
In standard written Finnish, when you use a third-person possessive pronoun like hänen (his/her) or heidän (their), you are grammatically required to also attach the matching possessive suffix to the noun. Hänen rajapyykkinsä is the correct written standard, though in everyday spoken Finnish you would usually just hear Sen rajapyykki.
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