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Questions & Answers about Tämä on koti, jossa asun nyt.
Why is jossa used here, and what does it mean?
jossa is the inessive singular form of the relative pronoun joka (“which”). The ending -ssa means “in,” so jossa literally means “in which.” In English we translate that as “where.” Thus koti, jossa asun nyt = “the home in which I live now,” i.e. “the home where I live now.”
Why is there a comma before jossa?
In Finnish, a relative clause is set off from the main clause by a comma. Here jossa asun nyt is a relative clause modifying koti, so you place a comma before jossa just as you would in English before “where” or “which.”
From which pronoun and case form does jossa come?
The base pronoun is joka (“which”). You add the inessive case ending -ssa (indicating “in”), yielding jossa. So grammatically it’s joka + -ssa → jossa.
Why is asun used here, and how is it formed?
asun is the first person singular present tense form of the verb asua (“to live”). In Finnish present tense you drop -a from asua and add the personal ending -n, giving asua → asun = “I live.”
Why isn’t koti inflected with a case ending?
In the main clause Tämä on koti (“This is a home”), koti is a predicate nominative of the copular verb on (“is”), so it remains in the nominative case and does not take an additional ending.
Why is nyt placed at the end, and can it move elsewhere?
nyt (“now”) is a time adverb. Finnish word order is flexible, but adverbs often follow the verb, so jossa asun nyt is very natural. You could also say jossa nyt asun, though putting nyt last can add emphasis to the timing.
Can I use missä instead of jossa, and what’s the difference?
Colloquially many Finns do say missä (“where”) in relative clauses, but in standard or written Finnish you use the relative pronoun jossa. missä is an interrogative/adverb, not a true relative pronoun, so jossa is grammatically more precise here.
Why can’t we say jonka asun nyt instead of jossa asun nyt?
jonka is the genitive form of joka and would imply possession (“whose”). But asua (“to live”) is intransitive and doesn’t take an object. To show “living in” a place, Finnish uses a locative case (inessive), so you need jossa (“in which”), not jonka.