Questions & Answers about Opettajan puhe oli selkeä.
Why is opettaja in the form opettajan here?
Opettajan is the genitive singular of opettaja (teacher).
In Finnish, when you show possession or a close relationship between two nouns (like teacher’s speech), the first noun usually goes into the genitive:
- opettaja → opettajan (teacher → teacher’s / of the teacher)
- opettajan puhe = the teacher’s speech / the speech of the teacher
So opettajan puhe literally means “teacher’s speech” in the sense of “the speech that belongs to / comes from the teacher.”
What exactly does puhe mean, and how is it different from puhuminen or puhu-?