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Questions & Answers about Kartta näyttää suunnan.
What case is suunnan in here, and why does it look like a genitive?
Suunnan is the accusative singular, used for a complete direct object of a telic verb such as näyttää. In the singular, the accusative form of many nouns coincides with the genitive, so suunnan looks like a genitive even though it functions as an object.
Why isn’t the partitive suuntaa used instead?
The partitive case signals incompleteness, indefiniteness or ongoing action. Since kartta näyttää suunnan conveys that the map shows the entire direction (a complete, definite object), it requires the accusative rather than the partitive.
Why are there no words for a or the in Kartta näyttää suunnan?
Finnish does not have articles. Definiteness and indefiniteness are understood from context, so kartta alone can mean a map or the map depending on the situation.
Which word is the subject, and why is kartta in the nominative?
kartta is the subject of the sentence. It appears in the nominative case because subjects in Finnish are almost always in the nominative when they perform the action of the verb.
What type of verb is näyttää, and how is it conjugated in the present tense?
näyttää is a type 1 verb (infinitive ending in -ää). Present tense forms:
minä näytän
sinä näytät
hän/se näyttää
me näytämme
te näytätte
he/ne näyttävät
Can näyttää also mean to look or to seem, as in se näyttää hyvältä = it looks good?
Yes. When näyttää means to look or to seem, it is intransitive and takes an adjective or adverbial phrase (e.g. se näyttää hyvältä, meaning it looks good). In our sentence, because there is a direct object (suunnan), näyttää means to show.
Can you replace kartta with a pronoun?
Yes. You can say se näyttää suunnan, where se means it. The verb form remains näyttää for third-person singular.
Is this the normal word order in Finnish, and can it change for emphasis?
The neutral word order is Subject–Verb–Object, so Kartta näyttää suunnan follows this pattern. Finnish word order is relatively free, so you can place elements before or after for emphasis or contrast, though the basic SVO remains the most common.