Breakdown of Uutiset kulkevat nopeasti netissä.
nopeasti
fast
uutinen
news
netti
internet
kulkea
to go along, to run (of a route or vehicle)
Questions & Answers about Uutiset kulkevat nopeasti netissä.
English treats "news" as singular. Why is uutiset plural here, and why does it take the plural verb kulkevat?
In Finnish, the word for news, uutinen, is countable. A single piece of news is uutinen, but when talking about news in general, Finnish uses the plural form uutiset. Because the subject is plural, the verb must also take the plural form, kulkevat.
This lesson is about the prolative case (-tse). Could I say netitse instead of the inessive netissä here?
Yes, you absolutely can! Saying Uutiset kulkevat nopeasti netitse is perfectly natural. Using netitse emphasizes the internet as the channel or route the news takes (via the internet), while netissä focuses on the internet as a conceptual location (on the internet). Both are common and correct here.
Why use the verb kulkevat for "travel" instead of matkustavat?
Matkustaa is almost exclusively used for people or animals making a physical journey or trip. Kulkea is a much broader verb for movement, passage, or progression. It is the natural verb to use for intangible things like news, rumors, or data moving from one place to another, as well as for vehicles running their routes.
How does the prolative rule apply if I want to say the news travels "by phone" or "by email" instead?
The prolative case is heavily used for exactly these kinds of communication channels. You would attach the -tse suffix to the noun stem, creating words like puhelimitse (by phone) or sähköpostitse (by email) to show the method of transmission.
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