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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?