Questions & Answers about Vastauksessa on kolme sanaa.
Why does the word for answer (vastaus) change to vastauksessa with a -kse- in the middle?
The base word is vastaus. In Finnish, many nouns ending in -us change their ending to a -ukse- stem before you add a case suffix. So, to say 'in the answer', you take the stem vastaukse- and add the inessive ending -ssa (in).
How does Finnish express 'there are' without a word for 'there'?
Finnish does not use a placeholder word like 'there' for these types of sentences. Instead, it relies on word order. You simply start with the location (vastauksessa), follow it with the verb (on), and end with the things that exist there (kolme sanaa).
Since there are three words, why does the sentence use the singular verb on instead of the plural ovat?
This is a Finnish 'existential sentence', which tells you what exists in a certain location. In Finnish, existential sentences always use the third-person singular verb on, even when talking about multiple things. You never use ovat for 'there are'.
Why is the word for 'words' (sanaa) in the partitive case instead of a normal plural?
After any number greater than one, Finnish requires the noun to be in the partitive singular form, not a regular plural. Because the number is kolme (three), the basic noun sana (word) takes the partitive ending -a to become sanaa.
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