# Leima



## Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I came to some club, left my jacket at the cloakroom and was about to go inside, and a "järjestyksenvalvoja" at the door said "Leiväänkö" (??) to me. I wasn't sure what she was asking in the beginning, but it turned out that she wanted to see this "stamp" on the hand where every guest to the club gets when paying for the "pääsymaksu".

What could she have said?


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## Gavril

Maybe what the person said was *Leimaanko?* "Shall I stamp (your hand)?"

leimata = "to stamp" (with ink, etc.)


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## altazure

They may also have said *Leimaa onko?* "Do you have a stamp?"

Normally  the question would be "Onko leimaa?", but this kind of reversed word  order is sometimes used in spoken language when the noun alone would be  enough to decipher what you mean based on the context, and so the verb  is relatively meaningless and only comes as an afterthought. As another  example, you could say "Kahvia otatteko?" (Will you have some  coffee?/Would you like some coffee?) or "Kahvia olisi" (The coffee is  ready/There's some coffee if you want) to people who are visiting your home.


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## Spongiformi

altazure said:


> They may also have said *Leimaa onko?* "Do you have a stamp?"
> 
> Normally  the question would be "Onko leimaa?", but this kind of reversed word  order is sometimes used in spoken language when the noun alone would be  enough to decipher what you mean based on the context, and so the verb  is relatively meaningless and only comes as an afterthought. As another  example, you could say "Kahvia otatteko?" (Will you have some  coffee?/Would you like some coffee?) or "Kahvia olisi" (The coffee is  ready/There's some coffee if you want) to people who are visiting your home.



I don't mean to downplay, not to mention demean, your guess, but I can't recall ever hearing such a reverse word order in use. Gavril's suggestion sounds like the correct one.

_"Kahvia olisi"_ is a different story because it's clipped from _"Kahvia olisi tarjolla/saatavilla/jne."_


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## sakvaka

Spongiformi said:


> I don't mean to downplay, not to mention demean, your guess, but I can't recall ever hearing such a reverse word order in use. Gavril's suggestion sounds like the correct one.
> 
> _"Kahvia olisi"_ is a different story because it's clipped from _"Kahvia olisi tarjolla/saatavilla/jne."_



I have to disagree on this, because I often hear this kind of reversed word order. _Leimaa onko?_, even though it's not the best word order grammatically, is something people might actually say in real life when they don't want to be too pushy.


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