Questions & Answers about Tämä tie on jyrkkä.
What part of speech is tämä, and how is it used here?
tämä is a demonstrative determiner (like this in English). It must agree with the noun (tie) in case and number. Here both are in the nominative singular, so tämä tie means this road.
Why doesn’t tie have a case ending in Tämä tie on jyrkkä?
In Finnish the subject of a sentence is in the nominative case, which is unmarked in the singular. Since tämä tie is the subject and jyrkkä is a predicate adjective, both stay in the nominative singular (no extra ending).
Why is jyrkkä not inflected for case, and how do predicate adjectives work after the verb olla?
Predicate adjectives following olla (“to be”) remain in the nominative singular (if they describe a singular noun). There is no separate “predicate case” – the adjective simply describes the subject without changing its form.
What is on, and what is its infinitive form?
on is the third person singular present tense of the verb olla (to be). The full infinitive form is olla.
How would you turn Tämä tie on jyrkkä into a question meaning Is this road steep?