Word
Minulla on kirja kädessä.
Meaning
I have a book in my hand.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Minulla on kirja kädessä.
Why does the sentence just say kädessä (in hand) instead of 'in my hand'?
In Finnish, when it is obvious whose body part is being talked about, you usually don't need a possessive word like minun (my) or a possessive suffix like -ni. Because the sentence starts with minulla on (I have), it is already completely clear that the hand is yours.
Why is kirja (book) in its basic form, rather than an object form?
In Finnish 'I have' sentences, the thing you own is technically the grammatical subject of the sentence. Because it acts as the subject, a whole, countable thing like kirja stays in its basic form (the nominative case) instead of taking an object ending.
How do we get kädessä from the basic word käsi (hand)?
Old Finnish words ending in -si (like käsi, vesi, uusi) have a stem that changes the -si to -te- or -de- before adding most endings. Here, the stem becomes käde- before adding the 'in' ending -ssä.
Why is the ending -ssä instead of -ssa?