Minulla on tehtävä, johon tarvitsen apua.

I

Breakdown of Minulla on tehtävä, johon tarvitsen apua.

• tarvita: to need
• apu: the help
• tehtävä: the task

Questions & Answers about Minulla on tehtävä, johon tarvitsen apua.

Why does Finnish use minulla on instead of a verb like to have?

Finnish usually expresses possession with olla (to be) plus the possessor in the adessive case.

• Minulla on tehtävä literally means something like At me is a task.
• In normal English, that becomes I have a task.

So where English uses have, Finnish often uses this pattern:

• minulla on = I have
• sinulla on = you have
• hänellä on = he/she has

What case is minulla, and what does it mean?

Minulla is the adessive form of minä (I).

The adessive often has meanings like on, at, or by, but in possession sentences it marks the possessor:

• Minulla on auto. = I have a car.
• Minulla on aikaa. = I have time.

So in this sentence, minulla tells you who has the task.

Why is tehtävä in the basic form?