Finnish doesn't have definite or indefinite articles (the and a). Instead, whether you are talking about a, some, or the item in question is determined partially from context, and partially from the position in the sentence:
kukka - flower
pöytä - table
pöydällä - on the table
Kukka on pöydällä - (The) flower is on the table
Pöydällä on kukka - On the table is (a) flower.
Don't ask me how we know if it's a or the table.
1 comment:
Wow...I've always been fascinated by Finnish. Unfortunately they don't teach it at University, at least where I'm from. I would have enjoied learning it. Private courses are quite expensive and I can't afford them right now. Your small post was very useful. Finnish looks like one of those languages that require a good linguistic intuition, especially if you're not a native speaker. Oh, well...some day I'll speak Finnish perfectly. He,he,he
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