Word
Naisella on punainen hattu.
Meaning
The woman has a red hat.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Naisella on punainen hattu.
Why does the sentence use naisella on instead of a verb for 'to have'?
Finnish doesn't have a verb that means 'to have.' Instead, it uses a possessive structure. You put the owner in the adessive case (ending in -lla or -llä, which usually means 'on' or 'at') followed by the verb on ('is'). So naisella on literally translates to 'on the woman is'.
How does the word nainen (woman) become naisella?
Finnish words that end in -nen in their basic dictionary form undergo a stem change. You must change the -nen to -se- before adding most grammatical endings. Therefore, the stem of nainen becomes naise-. When you add the -lla ending to show ownership, it forms naisella.
Why are punainen and hattu in their basic dictionary form?
In a Finnish 'have' sentence, the thing being owned is actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. Because a single, whole hat is being possessed here, it stays in the basic nominative case. If she had an uncountable substance (like coffee) or multiple hats, you would need to use the partitive case instead.
Does the adjective punainen (red) need to match the case of hattu?