Minulla on muutama kirja kotona.

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Breakdown of Minulla on muutama kirja kotona.

• olla: to be
• kotona: at home
• kirja: the book

Questions & Answers about Minulla on muutama kirja kotona.

Why do we use Minulla on to express possession instead of a verb like “to have”?

In Finnish you don’t use a separate verb for “to have.” Instead you put the possessor in the adessive case (ending -lla/-llä) and use the verb olla (“to be”). So Minulla on literally means “There is … on me,” i.e. “I have ….”

What case is minulla in and why is that case used here?

Minulla is minä (“I”) in the adessive case. The adessive marks the experiencer of possession: whoever “has” something stands in the adessive, and the thing possessed follows in whatever case makes sense (here nominative).

Why is kirja in the singular after muutama? Shouldn’t “few books” be plural?

Muutama (“a few”) is a quantifier that always takes a singular noun in the nominative. Even though it means “a few books,” you say muutama kirja, not kirjat or kirjoja.

If I want to say “I have some books at home” with partitive plural, how would I do that?

You can say Minulla on kirjoja kotona. Here kirjoja is the partitive plural of kirja and means “some books” rather than the more specific “a few books.”

What case is kotona, and why do we use that form for “at home”?