Questions & Answers about Tässä uudessa sanassa on kolme tavua.
What does tässä mean here?
Tässä is the inessive form of tämä, meaning this. In this sentence, it means in this.
So:
- tämä = this
- tässä = in this / here in this
In tässä uudessa sanassa, it helps form the meaning in this new word.
Why do tässä, uudessa, and sanassa all have the ending -ssa / -ssä?
Because they all belong to the same phrase and are all in the inessive case, which usually means in.
Finnish shows this kind of agreement clearly:
- tämä → tässä = in this
- uusi → uudessa = in a new
- sana → sanassa = in a word
Together:
- tässä uudessa sanassa = in this new word
So unlike English, Finnish often marks the whole noun phrase with case endings, not just one word.
What case is sanassa?