Breakdown of Uutistoimiston kirjeenvaihtaja on Lontoossa.
olla
to be
Lontoo
London
uutistoimisto
news agency
kirjeenvaihtaja
correspondent
Questions & Answers about Uutistoimiston kirjeenvaihtaja on Lontoossa.
What is the literal translation of kirjeenvaihtaja, and why is the first part in the genitive?
It literally means 'letter exchanger'. It combines kirje (letter) and vaihtaja (exchanger). The first part is in the genitive case (kirjeen), which is a common way Finnish forms compound nouns to show that the second part acts upon or relates to the first part.
How does the compound word uutistoimiston break down?
It is a compound of uutinen (news) and toimisto (agency or office). Notice that when words ending in -nen like uutinen form the first part of a compound word, they often drop the -nen and use their -s stem, becoming uutis-. The whole word is then put into the genitive case (-n) to mean 'the news agency's'.
If I wanted to say 'According to the news agency's correspondent', how would I use the postposition mukaan with this vocabulary?
You need to put the head noun of the phrase into the genitive case before the postposition. The word uutistoimiston is already a genitive modifier, so you just need to change the main noun to genitive as well: uutistoimiston kirjeenvaihtajan mukaan.
Could I change the word order and say Lontoossa on uutistoimiston kirjeenvaihtaja instead?
Yes, but it changes the nuance. The original sentence tells you where a specific, known correspondent is ('The news agency's correspondent is in London'). Reversing it to start with the location creates an existential sentence, changing the focus to 'There is a news agency's correspondent in London'.