Urheilukaupan myyjä kysyy, käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla.

The salesperson at the sports store asks whether you go to the gym often.

Breakdown of Urheilukaupan myyjä kysyy, käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla.

• sinä: you
• usein: often
• kysyä: to ask
• käydä: to go
• myyjä: the salesperson
• -lla: at
• urheilukauppa: the sports store
• kuntosali: the gym
• -kö: whether

Questions & Answers about Urheilukaupan myyjä kysyy, käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla.

Why is urheilukauppa in the form urheilukaupan here?

Urheilukaupan is the genitive singular of urheilukauppa (sports shop / sporting goods store).

• urheilukauppa → urheilukaupan
  
  • stem: urheilukauppa-
  • genitive ending: -n

The genitive here expresses a relationship similar to “X’s Y” in English:

• urheilukaupan myyjä
  = the sports shop’s salesperson / the salesperson of the sports shop

So the pattern is:

• [GENITIVE] + [HEAD NOUN]
  → urheilukaupan (of the sports shop) + myyjä (salesperson)

Why isn’t myyjä also in the genitive? Why not urheilukaupan myyjän?

Only the first word (the “owner”) goes into the genitive; the head noun (the main thing you’re talking about) stays in the base form (nominative).

Here the head noun is myyjä (salesperson). Urheilukaupan just describes what kind of salesperson.

• urheilukaupan myyjä = the salesperson of the sports shop
  
  • urheilukaupan → genitive, “of the sports shop”
  • myyjä → nominative, the main subject of the sentence

If you said urheilukaupan myyjän, you would need something after it:

• urheilukaupan myyjän nimi = the sports shop salesperson’s name
  (now myyjän is genitive, and nimi is the head noun)

In our sentence, myyjä is the subject of the verb kysyy (asks), so it correctly stays in the nominative.

What exactly does kysyy mean grammatically? Which person and tense is it?

Kysyy is the 3rd person singular, present tense of the verb kysyä (to ask).

The full present tense paradigm of kysyä is:

• minä kysyn – I ask
• sinä kysyt – you ask
• hän kysyy – he/she asks
• me kysymme – we ask
• te kysytte – you (pl.) ask
• he kysyvät – they ask

In the sentence:

• Urheilukaupan myyjä kysyy …
  = The sports shop salesperson asks …

So kysyy tells you:

• time: present (is asking / asks)
• person: 3rd person singular (he/she/it)

Why is there a comma before käytkö and no word like että?

The structure is:

• Urheilukaupan myyjä kysyy, [käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla].

The part after the comma is the content of the question the salesperson asks. In English you’d say:

• The salesperson asks if / whether you often go to the gym.
• or more literally: … asks, “Do you often go to the gym?”

In Finnish, you do not use että (that) when you report a yes–no question like this. Instead:

• you put a comma after kysyy
• then you use a question clause starting with a verb marked by -ko/-kö: käytkö

So:

• Hän kysyy, tuletko mukaan.
  = He/she asks whether you’re coming along.

Using että here (*Hän kysyy, että tuletko mukaan) is incorrect.

How is the question formed in käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla? Why does käyt get -kö, and why is the verb first?

Finnish yes–no questions are usually made by:

1. Putting the finite verb first in the clause.
2. Attaching the question particle -ko/-kö to that verb (or sometimes to another word you want to emphasize).

Here:

• verb stem: käy-
• 2nd person singular present: käyt
• question ending: -kö

→ käyt + kö = käytkö = “do you go / do you visit”

Then the subject pronoun sinä follows:

• käytkö sinä = do you go (you)?

So the structure is:

• käytkö (verb + question particle)
• sinä (you)
• usein (often)
• kuntosalilla (at the gym)

Do we have to include sinä in käytkö sinä? What changes if we leave it out?

You don’t have to include sinä. Finnish usually drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person.

So you can say:

• Käytkö usein kuntosalilla?
  (Do you often go to the gym?)

Adding sinä makes the subject explicit and slightly emphasized, often implying contrast:

• Käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla?
  ≈ Do *you often go to the gym?* (as opposed to someone else)

In our sentence, the full version käytkö sinä sounds a bit more personal/pointed, as if the salesperson is directly focusing on you.

Why is it käytkö and not menetkö? What’s the difference between käydä and mennä here?

Both käydä and mennä can be translated as “go”, but they are used differently:

• käydä = to go (to a place) and usually come back / visit; also used for regular visits or habitual activity.
• mennä = to go (from here to there), focusing on the movement in one direction.

In the context of “Do you often go to the gym?”, the idea is regularly visiting the gym, which fits käydä better:

• Käytkö usein kuntosalilla?
  = Do you often go / work out at the gym? (habit, visits)

Menetkö usein kuntosalille? is grammatically correct but sounds more like:

• “Do you often go (off) to the gym?” with slightly more focus on the physical going-there, less on the habitual visiting sense that käydä naturally gives.

What does kuntosalilla mean grammatically? What case is it, and why is -lla used?

Kuntosalilla is the adessive case of kuntosali (gym).

• nominative: kuntosali (gym)
• adessive: kuntosalilla (at the gym / on the gym premises)

The -lla/-llä ending (adessive) often expresses:

• location: on / at a place
• sometimes also: visiting/using a service or place (especially with käydä)

With käydä, it is very typical to combine it with the adessive to mean “go to / visit a place”:

• käydä kaupassa – to go to the store
• käydä lääkärissä – to go to the doctor
• käydä kuntosalilla – to go to the gym, to (regularly) work out at the gym

So käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla literally is close to:

• “Do you (regularly) visit / go at-the-gym often?”

Could we also say kuntosalissa or kuntosalille? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can use other local cases, but the nuance changes slightly:

• kuntosalilla (adessive, -lla)

  • very natural with käydä
  • focuses on the idea of visiting/being at the gym as a service/place
  • default in käydä kuntosalilla

• kuntosalissa (inessive, -ssa, “in the gym”)

  • focuses more on being inside the gym building
  • often used with verbs of being / doing something inside:
    
    • Olen kuntosalissa. – I’m in the gym.

  With käydä, käydä kuntosalissa is possible but less idiomatic than käydä kuntosalilla.

• kuntosalille (illative, -lle, “to the gym”)

  • focuses on movement towards the gym
  • common with mennä:
    
    • Menetkö usein kuntosalille? – Do you often go (to) the gym?

So:

• käydä kuntosalilla is the standard, idiomatic expression for “to (regularly) go to the gym”.
• mennä kuntosalille is fine too, but it highlights the going-to rather than the visiting-as-a-habit.

Can usein (often) move to other positions, like käytkö usein sinä kuntosalilla?

Usein is fairly flexible, but some positions sound more natural than others.

Most natural spots:

• Käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla?
• Käytkö usein sinä kuntosalilla? (extra emphasis on sinä)
• Käytkö sinä kuntosalilla usein?

All of these are understandable. The most neutral is probably:

• Käytkö usein kuntosalilla?

Putting usein right after käytkö or after sinä is common. Word order can subtly change what is emphasized:

• Käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla? – mild emphasis on you and the frequency
• Käytkö usein sinä kuntosalilla? – more contrastive emphasis on sinä (you as opposed to others)

What you generally don’t do is separate usein in a way that breaks up tight word groups unnaturally; but Finnish still allows quite a bit of freedom compared to English.

Is Urheilukaupan myyjä kysyy, käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla. direct or indirect speech? How would this correspond to English?

This is essentially reported (indirect) speech, but Finnish keeps the clause in the question form with -ko/-kö.

In English, you would usually turn it into a statement pattern for indirect speech:

• The sports shop salesperson asks if / whether you often go to the gym.

Finnish keeps:

• the question word order (verb first)
• the question particle -kö in käytkö

So you could think of it as:

• Myyjä kysyy: “Käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla?” (direct speech, with quotes)
  → reported as
• Myyjä kysyy, käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla. (reported content, still in question form)

English normally changes the word order in the reported version (“asks if you often go”), but Finnish doesn’t: it just embeds the question clause after kysyy.

Why is there a period at the end and not a question mark, even though there is a question inside the sentence?

The main clause is:

• Urheilukaupan myyjä kysyy – The sports shop salesperson asks.

That clause is a statement, not a question. The question is only inside the subordinate clause:

• käytkö sinä usein kuntosalilla

In Finnish punctuation, the overall sentence type generally follows the main clause:

• Hän kysyy, tuletko mukaan. – He asks if you’re coming along. (ends with a period)
• Kysytkö, tuletko mukaan? – Are you asking if you’re coming along? (main clause is a question → ends with a question mark)

So in our sentence:

• main clause: statement → period
• embedded clause: question form, but it does not control the final punctuation.