Questions & Answers about Kissa menee pöydän alle.
Why is the word order pöydän alle instead of "alle pöytä"?
In Finnish, words like alle (under) are usually postpositions. This means they come after the word they relate to, rather than before it like prepositions do in English. Instead of saying "under the table," Finnish literally says "the table's under."
Why does pöytä (table) change to pöydän here?
Most postpositions in Finnish require the word right before them to be in the genitive case, which is the possession form ending in -n. Because of this, you are literally saying "to the table's underneath."
Where did the "d" in pöydän come from? The dictionary word is pöytä.
This happens because of a common Finnish spelling rule called consonant gradation. When you add the -n ending to pöytä, it closes the final syllable. This causes the strong consonant t to soften into a weak d.
I thought the Finnish word for "under" was alla. Why does this sentence use alle?
Finnish is very strict about showing movement! The word alla means being under something in a fixed location, like if the cat was already sleeping there. But alle means moving to under something. Because the cat is going (menee), we must use the destination form alle.
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