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Questions & Answers about Tehtävä on monimutkainen.
What does tehtävä mean and what is its grammatical role?
Tehtävä means task or assignment. It is in the nominative singular and functions as the subject of the sentence.
Why is there no word for the or a before tehtävä?
Finnish lacks definite and indefinite articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context or by using demonstratives (e.g. se tehtävä for that task).
What is on, and how is it formed?
On is the third person singular present form of the verb olla (to be). It corresponds to English is.
Why is monimutkainen not in the partitive case?
When an adjective follows olla as a predicate complement, both the noun and the adjective take the nominative case. The partitive would be used in other constructions, such as with indefinite objects.
How do adjectives and nouns agree in Finnish?
Adjectives match their nouns in case and number. Here, both tehtävä (singular nominative) and monimutkainen (singular nominative) agree with each other.
How would you turn this into a yes/no question?
Invert the verb and the subject, and add the question particle -ko to the verb: Onko tehtävä monimutkainen? (Is the task complicated?)
How do you say ‘The task is not complicated’?
Use the negative verb ei in the same person plus the base form of olla: Tehtävä ei ole monimutkainen.
How would you express this idea in the plural?
Make both the noun and adjective plural nominative, and use the plural verb form: Tehtävät ovat monimutkaiset. (The tasks are complicated.)
What is the origin and pronunciation of monimutkainen?
It’s built from moni meaning many, plus mutka meaning bend or turn, and the adjectival suffix -inen. Pronunciation in IPA is roughly [ˈmoniˌmutkɑinen].
How can you ask ‘What kind of task is it?’ using millainen?
You can say Millainen tehtävä on?, literally What kind of task is it? The answer could then be Tehtävä on monimutkainen.