Puhelin putosi eilen.

the phone

Breakdown of Puhelin putosi eilen.

• eilen: yesterday
• pudota: to fall

Questions & Answers about Puhelin putosi eilen.

What case is puhelin in, and why is there no article like the or a?

Puhelin is in the nominative singular (the basic form for the subject). Finnish does not use definite or indefinite articles; context or word order tells you whether something is “a” or “the.”

What is the infinitive form of putosi, and what does it mean?

The dictionary (infinitive) form is pudota, meaning “to fall.”

How is the past tense formed in putosi?

putosi is the 3rd person singular past indicative. You start with the verb stem puto-, add the past tense marker -i-, and then the personal ending -si.

Why does pudota become putosi instead of something like pudosi?

Because of consonant gradation: the strong-grade d in pudota weakens to t in certain forms, so you get the stem puto- rather than pudo-.

Can I move eilen to the front of the sentence? For example, “Eilen puhelin putosi.”