Breakdown of Tiedätkö, mihin liukuportaisiin mennä, kun katsot kerroskarttaa?
Questions & Answers about Tiedätkö, mihin liukuportaisiin mennä, kun katsot kerroskarttaa?
Tiedätkö is the verb tiedät (you know) plus the question clitic -kö:
- tietää = to know
- tiedät = you know
- tiedätkö = do you know?
In Finnish, yes/no questions are usually formed by attaching -ko / -kö to the first word of the clause, most often the verb:
- Tiedät. = You know.
- Tiedätkö? = Do you know?
- Puhut suomea. = You speak Finnish.
- Puhutko suomea? = Do you speak Finnish?
The choice -ko vs -kö follows vowel harmony:
- front vowels (y, ä, ö) → -kö (e.g. tiedätkö)
- back vowels (a, o, u) → -ko
Without -kö, Tiedät, mihin liukuportaisiin mennä… would be a statement: You know which escalator to go to…, not a question.
Mihin is the illative form of mikä (what/which), and it expresses movement into / towards something:
- missä? = where? (in / at) – static location
- mistä? = from where? – movement out of / away from
- mihin? = to where? / into what? – movement into / towards
So:
- Missä liukuportaissa olet? = In which escalator(s) are you?
- Mistä liukuportaista tulet? = From which escalator(s) are you coming?
- Mihin liukuportaisiin menet? = To which escalator(s) are you going?
In the sentence, mihin liukuportaisiin mennä = which escalator(s) to go to.
It looks redundant from an English point of view, but in Finnish this is normal for “which/what” questions.
- mihin is a question word in illative case (“to which / into what”).
- liukuportaisiin is the noun in illative plural (“into the escalators / to the escalator(s)”).
Together they form a more precise question phrase:
- mihin liukuportaisiin = “into which escalator(s)” / “to which escalator(s)”
Very similar patterns:
- Mihin bussiin menet? = Which bus are you getting on?
- Mihin huoneeseen menemme? = Which room are we going into?
So both the pronoun and the noun carry the case ending, and that’s completely standard Finnish.
The Finnish word liukuportaat is grammatically plural, like English stairs:
- portat = stairs
- liukuportaat = escalator(s) (literally “sliding stairs”)
Even when English uses a singular (the escalator), Finnish typically uses the plural form liukuportaat, and all its cases are plural:
- nominative plural: liukuportaat
- genitive plural: liukuportaiden
- illative plural: liukuportaisiin
So:
- Menen liukuportaisiin. = I’m going to the escalator / onto the escalator.
- Seisomme liukuportaissa. = We’re standing on the escalator.
It’s just how the word works in Finnish; you don’t normally use a singular form here.
Yes. Morphologically:
- liuku = sliding
- portaat = stairs
→ compound noun: liukuportaat = escalator(s), grammatically plural
Case and number:
- stem for cases: liukuportai-
- plural marker: -si-
- illative ending: -in
So:
- liukuportai
- si
- in → liukuportaisiin
- si
Function:
- illative plural = “into / to the escalator(s)”
In the sentence, mihin liukuportaisiin mennä literally is “to which escalators to go”.
Here mennä is in the basic infinitive form because it’s part of an infinitive clause dependent on tiedätkö:
- Tiedätkö, mihin liukuportaisiin mennä…
= Do you know which escalator to go to…
Finnish often uses an infinitive in structures like:
- tiedän, mitä tehdä = I know what to do
- en tiedä, minne mennä = I don’t know where to go
- osaatko kertoa, miten tämä tehdä? = Can you tell how to do this?
If you said:
- Tiedätkö, mihin liukuportaisiin menet…
it would mean Do you know to which escalator you are going…, which is more like asking about your current plan, not about reading or understanding the map. The infinitive mennä translates better as “to go (there)” after mihin liukuportaisiin.
In standard written Finnish, a comma is placed before most subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like kun, että, koska, jos:
- Lähden, kun olen valmis. = I’ll leave when I’m ready.
- Jään kotiin, koska olen kipeä. = I’ll stay home because I’m sick.
So in:
- Tiedätkö, mihin liukuportaisiin mennä, kun katsot kerroskarttaa?
the comma before kun separates the main clause (the “do you know…” part) from the time clause kun katsot kerroskarttaa (“when you look at the floor map”).
In informal writing (texts, chats) Finns sometimes omit commas, but the comma here is correct and recommended in standard language.
Kun most often means when and can cover both “when” and “while” in English, depending on context.
In this sentence:
- kun katsot kerroskarttaa
literally: when you look at the floor map
This can be understood as:
- “when you look at the floor map” (at the moment when you look), or
- “while you are looking at the floor map”
So the whole idea is:
- Do you know which escalator to go to when/while you look at the floor map?
If you wanted to strongly emphasize “while doing X” in a more formal way, Finnish can also use participle constructions, but kun + verb is the normal everyday way to say “when/while” here.
Kerroskarttaa is the partitive singular of kerroskartta (“floor map”, “floor plan”, “store directory”).
Many verbs that mean looking / watching / observing take their object in the partitive, especially when the action is more like “looking at” rather than “finding / seeing as a whole”. Katsoa is one of those verbs:
- Katson televisiota. = I watch TV.
- Katsotko elokuvaa? = Are you watching a movie?
- Katsot kerroskarttaa. = You (are) look(ing) at the floor map.
So:
- base form: kerroskartta
- partitive singular: kerroskarttaa
Using kerroskarttaa with katsot is simply the normal government pattern of the verb katsoa.
Yes, kerroskartta is a compound noun:
- kerros = floor, storey (in a building)
- kartta = map
So kerroskartta = a map of a floor, or in context: a floor plan / directory of a shopping centre, department store, etc.
Depending on context, it can be translated as:
- floor map
- store directory
- floor plan
In this sentence it’s the map you look at in a mall or building to see where things (and escalators) are.
Yes, that word order is grammatically possible:
Tiedätkö, mihin liukuportaisiin mennä, kun katsot kerroskarttaa?
(original: focus first on the destination, then add the time clause)Tiedätkö, kun katsot kerroskarttaa, mihin liukuportaisiin mennä?
(alternative: first set the situation when you look at the map, then specify which escalator)
Both are understandable and correct. The original order feels slightly more neutral and typical: the main thing you’re asking about is which escalator, and the kun katsot kerroskarttaa part is additional context.
In Finnish, subordinate clauses (like kun katsot kerroskarttaa) can often be moved around without changing the basic meaning, though it can shift emphasis slightly.
Yes, that’s correct, and it’s a good simpler variant.
- minne mennä = “where to go (to)” (illative form of missä-series: minne = to where)
So:
- Tiedätkö, minne mennä, kun katsot kerroskarttaa?
= Do you know where to go when you look at the floor map?
Your original sentence is more specific (mihin liukuportaisiin = which escalator), while minne mennä just asks “where to go” in general. Both are natural Finnish; the choice depends on how precise you want to be.