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Huoltomies toi uuden työkalun keittiöön.

Huoltomies toi uuden työkalun keittiöön.
The maintenance man brought a new tool to the kitchen.
FromLesson 14inHardcore Finnish

Breakdown of Huoltomies toi uuden työkalun keittiöön.

uusi
new
keittiö
the kitchen
tuoda
to bring
huoltomies
the maintenance man
työkalu
the tool

Questions & Answers about Huoltomies toi uuden työkalun keittiöön.

What does huoltomies mean and what role does it play in the sentence?
huoltomies means “maintenance man.” In this sentence it’s the subject in the nominative case – the person who performs the action of bringing.
What is toi, and why is it not tuo or tuoda?

toi is the third person singular past tense (imperfect) form of tuoda (“to bring”). It means “(he/she) brought.”

  • tuoda = infinitive “to bring”
  • toi = “he/she brought”
Why does työkalu change to työkalun?

Because it’s the direct object of toi, it takes the accusative singular form. For most Finnish nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the genitive singular and ends in -n:

  • nominative: työkalu (“tool”)
  • accusative/genitive: työkalun (“(the) tool” as the object)
Why is the adjective uusi changed to uuden?
Finnish adjectives agree in case and number with the nouns they modify. Since työkalu is in the accusative singular (työkalun), uusi also takes the accusative/genitive singular ending -n, becoming uuden (“new”).
What case is keittiöön, and how is it formed?

keittiöön is the illative case, indicating movement “into” something. For words ending in a vowel, the illative is typically formed by adding -hVn (where V is the final vowel):

  • stem: keittiö (“kitchen”)
  • illative: keittiö + h + ö + n → keittiöön (“into the kitchen”)
Why isn’t there a preposition like “into” in the Finnish sentence?
Finnish uses case endings instead of separate prepositions. Here, the illative suffix -ön on keittiö does the job of “into.”
Why are there no articles (“a/the”) in this sentence?
Finnish does not have articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context, not by separate words.
Is the word order fixed? Could we rearrange the sentence for emphasis?

Finnish has relatively free word order. The default is Subject–Verb–Object–Adverbial (SVOA), but you can move elements to emphasize different parts:

  • Keittiöön toi huoltomies uuden työkalun. (emphasizes the destination)
  • Uuden työkalun toi huoltomies keittiöön. (emphasizes the new tool)
    The case endings keep the roles clear even if the order changes.
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