Direct questions that can be answered by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ are formed by moving
the word being questioned to the beginning of the sentence and adding to it
the enclitic particle -ko ~ -kö, which is almost always the last ending of the
word. The word questioned is most commonly the verb. If we take the
sentence Pekka saapui Turkuun aamulla ‘Pekka arrived at Turku in the
morning’, we can form the following questions:
Saapu/i/ko Pekka Turkuun aamulla?
Did Pekka arrive at Turku in the morning?
Pekka/ko saapui Turkuun aamulla?
Was it Pekka who arrived at Turku in the morning?
Turku/un/ko Pekka saapui aamulla?
Was it at Turku that Pekka arrived in the morning?
Aamu/lla/ko Pekka saapui Turkuun?
Was it in the morning that Pekka arrived at Turku?
Here are some more examples of the formation of these direct questions.
Mene/t/kö ulos? Are you going out?
Ole/t/ko sairas? Are you ill?
Sa/isi/n/ko oluen? Could I have a beer?
Pitä/ä/kö Jussi Marjasta? Does Jussi like Marja?
Tietä/vät/kö he, että tulen? Do they know that I am coming?
Puu/ko tämä on? Is this a TREE? (capital letters
indicating emphasis)
72 Finnish: An Essential Grammar
Ruotsi/ssa/ko Kalle on? Is Kalle in SWEDEN?
Häne/t/kö sinä tapasit? Was it him/her that you met?
Presidenti/ksi/kö Koivisto valittiin? Was Koivisto elected PRESIDENT?
There are many ways of answering such questions in the affirmative. The
word being questioned is often repeated (in the right person, if it is a verb,
and without the ending -ko ~ -kö). If the word questioned is a verb one can
also answer kyllä ‘yes’, and if it is some other word one can answer niin
(literally: ‘so’). Both kyllä and niin can be used with a repetition of the
word questioned. The word joo ‘yes, yeah’ is used mostly in the spoken
language.
Question Various affirmative answers
Tul/i/ko Pekka Turkuun? – Tuli.
Did Pekka come to Turku? – Kyllä tuli.
– Kyllä.
Ole/t/ko sairas? – Olen.
Are you ill? – Kyllä olen.
– Kyllä.
Mene/tte/kö tanssimaan? – Menemme.
Are you going dancing? – Kyllä menemme.
– Kyllä.
O/vat/ko lapset ulkona? – Ovat.
Are the children outside? – Kyllä ovat.
– Kyllä.
Auto/n/ko ostitte? – Niin.
Was it a car that you bought? – Niin, auton.
– Auton.
Mäntynieme/ssä/kö presidentti – Niin.
asuu? – Niin, Mäntyniemessä.
Is it at Mäntyniemi that the – Mäntyniemessä.
president lives?
Negative answers to direct questions are formed from the negation verb
(§28), which must be in the right person and may be followed by the
inflectional stem of the main verb with no personal ending.
Question Negative answer
Mene/e/kö Tauno Kotkaan? – Ei (mene).
Is Tauno going to Kotka?
Ole/t/ko kovin sairas? – En (ole).
Are you very ill?
Basic sentence structure 73
Syö/tte/kö hernekeittoa? – Emme (syö).
Do you eat pea-soup? – En (syö).
O/vat/ko kirjat laukussa? – Eivät (ole).
Are the books in the bag?
Viljo/ko siellä on? – Ei (vaan Auli).
Is that Viljo there? No (it’s Auli).
Juna/lla/ko tulitte? – Emme (vaan linja-autolla).
Did you come by train? No (by bus).
A question can be made especially polite by using the conditional ending -isi-
and/or the particle -han ~ -hän.
Sa/isi/n/ko pullon punaviiniä? Could I have a bottle of red wine?
Sa/isi/n/ko/han kylmän oluen? Might I have a cold beer?
On/ko/han Viljo Kohonen I wonder if Viljo Kohonen is in?
tavattavissa?
Ol/isi/ko/han teillä nailonsukkia? I wonder if you might have any
nylon stockings?
The ending -ko ~ -kö is also used in indirect questions.
En tiedä, men/i/kö Auli kotiin. I don’t know if Auli went home.
Kysy, on/ko heillä lämmintä ruokaa. Ask if they have warm food.
Ole/t/ko varma, saa/ko sinne mennä?Are you sure that (lit. whether)
one can go there?
Kerro, maistu/i/ko ruoka hyvältä. Say whether the food tasted good.
