Mistä päin Amerikkaa te olette kotoisin?

Learning Finnish Forum - Ask a Tutor
1

I understood the global meaning of this sentence even before looking at the translation, but I can’t see what “päin” is.
I guess “kotoisin” is related to “kotona”, which should mean “at home” as far as I remember, but I can’t put the elements together.
Kiitos for any help,
Michele

2

As I understand it, it’s kind of like “at”. For example, from where AT are you? Not grammatically correct, but a representation.

I don’t know if there’s a direct translation in English as that’s not really my thing. I just use the language :wink:

Does this help?

3

Thanks Henrij. Your answer helps me a bit, but I still don’t understand what “päin” is, morphologically, and whether it is linked to “kotaisin”.

4

To me, the ‘päin’ indicates direction, but it’s not always precise. A bit like ‘where abouts’ in English. Sinnepäin - that way, that direction (roughly). Mistä päin Amerikkaa olette kotoisin? Where/where abouts in America are you from? ‘Olla kotoisin’ to me means ‘to be from’, e.g. A town, city etc. If it helps you remember it, you could think of it as “where/which place do you call home?”

5

Peter explained it much better than I did.

I have a hard time giving you a direct translation since it can be used in different ways. The best way to learn it is to see it in different contexts.

For example, someone could ask you “mistä päin olet?” which would basically mean “where are you from?”

Then you can add “mistä päin olet kotoisin?” which isn’t necessary but kotoisin just means home/hometown.

6

EDIT:- I meant to have kotoisin in that sentence above, but I wrote it with my phone while on the bus! So I’ve added it in.

Also, perhaps we could, somewhat loosely, translate “kotoisin” as “originally” in English. Where are you from originally?

7

You see, Finnish confuses even us native speakers :smiley:

8

Ok, thanks to both!