Breakdown of Kysyn ystävältäni, onko vastaus oikein vai väärin.
Questions & Answers about Kysyn ystävältäni, onko vastaus oikein vai väärin.
Kysyn means “I ask”.
- The dictionary form (infinitive) is kysyä = to ask.
- kysyn is:
- stem: kysy-
- personal ending: -n for 1st person singular (I) in the present tense
So the pattern is:
- minä kysyn = I ask
- sinä kysyt = you ask
- hän kysyy = he/she asks
The pronoun minä is usually dropped, so kysyn alone already means “I ask”.
English uses “whether/if” to introduce an indirect question:
- I ask my friend whether the answer is right or wrong.
In Finnish, that function is carried by the question form of the verb “to be”, onko.
- on = is
- onko = is? / whether it is
In an indirect question like this, onko means something like “whether (it) is”:
- Kysyn …, onko vastaus oikein vai väärin.
= I ask … whether the answer is right or wrong.
So you don’t add a separate word for “if/whether”; onko already includes that idea.
Both come from olla = to be.
- on = is (3rd person singular present):
- Vastaus on oikein. = The answer is correct.
- onko = question form of on:
- Onko vastaus oikein? = Is the answer correct?
In this sentence, onko appears in an indirect question:
- Kysyn …, onko vastaus oikein vai väärin.
Literally: I ask …, is-the answer correct or wrong.
In English we need extra words (if/whether), but Finnish just uses the question form onko.
ystävältäni means “from my friend”.
It’s made of three parts:
- ystävä = friend
- -ltä / -lta = elative case, “from on / from at”
- Because of vowel harmony, ä → -ltä here.
- -ni = “my” (1st person singular possessive suffix)
So:
- ystävä = friend
- ystävältä = from (the) friend
- ystävältäni = from my friend
In this sentence, you’re asking from your friend, so Finnish marks that with -ltä on ystävä.
Finnish usually marks the person you ask from with the elative case (-lta/-ltä).
- Kysyn ystävältäni …
= I ask (from) my friend …
If you said just kysyn ystäväni, it would be incomplete or wrong, because you’d be missing the case ending that shows the role of the friend in the sentence.
So:
- ystäväni = my friend (no information about the relation)
- ystävältäni = from my friend (clearly the person you are asking from)
Finnish uses a comma to separate a main clause from a subordinate clause, even when English would not.
- Main clause: Kysyn ystävältäni = I ask my friend
- Subordinate clause (an indirect question): onko vastaus oikein vai väärin = whether the answer is right or wrong
Finnish rule: put a comma before the subordinate clause.
So:
- Kysyn ystävältäni, onko vastaus oikein vai väärin.
In English we don’t normally put a comma there, but in Finnish it is standard.
Both oikea and oikein come from the same root, but they’re different word types:
- oikea = adjective: right, correct
- oikea vastaus = the correct answer
- Vastaus on oikea. = The answer is correct.
- oikein = adverb: correctly, right
In the phrase onko vastaus oikein vai väärin, oikein and väärin behave like adverbial evaluations: “right or wrong”, a bit like saying:
- onko se oikein = is it right / is it correct
This pattern onko oikein vai väärin is very idiomatic, especially in school/test contexts.
You could also hear variants like:
- Onko vastaus oikea vai väärä? (using adjectives instead)
Both are words for “or”, but they’re used differently:
vai:
- used in questions between alternatives
- suggests a choice: one or the other
- e.g. Onko se oikein vai väärin? = Is it right or wrong?
tai:
- used mainly in statements, or in questions where both options can be true
- more like “or / or possibly both”
- e.g. Voit vastata suomeksi tai englanniksi. = You can answer in Finnish or English (or both, in principle).
In onko vastaus oikein vai väärin, you are picking between two alternatives in a question, so vai is the correct word.
Vastaus is in the nominative (basic form) because here it’s the subject of the verb onko:
- (Onko) vastaus oikein vai väärin.
= (Is) the answer (right or wrong).
In Finnish, the subject of a normal positive clause is typically in the nominative:
- Vastaus on oikein. = The answer is correct.
- Onko vastaus oikein? = Is the answer correct?
You would use the partitive (vastausta) in other contexts, for example:
- after some verbs,
- in certain negative or incomplete situations, but not here, because we’re talking about the whole answer being right or wrong.
Yes, you can:
- Minä kysyn ystävältäni, onko vastaus oikein vai väärin.
This is grammatically correct. However, in normal Finnish, the personal ending -n on the verb kysyn already shows “I”, so the pronoun minä is usually left out unless you want to emphasize it:
- Minä kysyn, en sinä.
= I am asking, not you.
Neutral, everyday Finnish prefers simply:
- Kysyn ystävältäni, onko…
As a direct question, you would say:
- Onko vastaus oikein vai väärin?
= Is the answer right or wrong?
That’s a full yes/no question with a choice between alternatives.
Your original sentence:
- Kysyn ystävältäni, onko vastaus oikein vai väärin.
wraps that direct question inside another sentence as an indirect question: I ask my friend whether the answer is right or wrong.
You can say:
- Kysyn ystävältäni, onko vastaus oikein vai ei.
This literally means:
- I ask my friend whether the answer is correct or not.
So:
- vai väärin = or wrong
- vai ei = or not
Both are natural; vai ei often appears when you just want “right or not”.