Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Finnish grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Mikä auto on kallis?
What does Mikä auto on kallis? mean literally?
It literally means Which car is expensive?
Why do we use mikä instead of mitä in this question?
mikä is the interrogative pronoun used when you select one item out of a group in the nominative. mitä is the partitive form of mikä and is used with certain verbs or when you ask “what” in an indefinite sense. Since you want to know which specific car is expensive, you use mikä in the nominative.
What part of speech is mikä?
mikä is an interrogative pronoun (a question word) that asks about identity or classification.
What case and number are auto and kallis in?
Both auto and kallis are in the nominative singular. auto is the subject and kallis is the predicate adjective linked by the verb on.
Why are there no words for “a” or “the” in the sentence?
Finnish has no articles. Whether something is definite or indefinite is inferred from context, not marked by a separate word.
Why isn’t kallis in the partitive case (like kallista)?
In simple equative sentences with the verb olla (“to be”), the predicate complement appears in the nominative, not partitive. You’d only see the partitive adjective in other constructions (e.g. negation, mass expressions).
What is the function of the word on?
on is the third person singular present form of olla (“to be”). It links the subject (mikä auto) to the predicate adjective (kallis).
How would you ask “Which cars are expensive?” in Finnish?
Use the plural nominative forms:
Mitkä autot ovat kalliit?
Here mitkä is plural “which,” autot is “cars” (nominative plural), ovat is “are,” and kalliit is “expensive” (adjective in nominative plural).
How could you answer Mikä auto on kallis? in Finnish?
You can name a car and say it’s expensive, for example:
Punainen auto on kallis.
(“The red car is expensive.”)
Or simply:
Toyota on kallis.
(“A Toyota is expensive.”)
What’s the difference between attributive and predicative use of kallis?
• Attributive (before a noun): kallis auto means “an expensive car.”
• Predicative (after olla): auto on kallis means “the car is expensive.”