[vikaveri]

Well, "talolla" can actually mean "at the house" or "the house has", depending on context. "On the house" would usually add "on top" or "talon päällä", or possibly "on the roof of" or "talon katolla". In theory you're right, but in practice the clarification is added. If it was table (pöytä) it would be correct and common

[vikaveri]

I forgot to include a link to blog post that demonstrates the ease, simplicity, beauty and clear logic of Finnish, so here you go.

https://depressingfinland.tumblr.com/post/65222506844/what-d...

[skrebbel]

Ah yeah thanks. My Finnish is super rusty but I still like to geek out on its grammar every once in a while.

That said, but this sort of contextual stuff happens with languages with prepositions too (eg “on the table” vs “on the job”). It’s not special about Finnish.

[hypertele-Xii]

There's more. It can also mean "with the house" or "using the house" (as an implement to a verb). Such as "heitän sinua talolla", "I throw a house at you" (e.g. Monopoly house piece).

[CRConrad]

> Well, "talolla" can actually mean "at the house" or "the house has", depending on context.

Finnish is pretty weird and unique (at least among the languages I know) in that it doesn't have a separate word for "to have". I suppose the closest it gets is "omistaa", for "to own".

[eru]

Well, that seeming ambiguity basically just means that English and Finnish prepositions don't match up 1-for-1.

(We have the same between English and German. Most of the time, you can translate the prepositions with a simple lookup table, but they aren't completely 1-for-1.)