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(demonstrative)that (overthere) (when the speaker points at the thing or person, either physically or mentally; compare se, see usage notes)
Tuo on saari.
That is an island.
Tuo haluaa syödä jäätelöä.
That person wants to eat ice cream.
Tuo oli ikävästi sanottu.
That was a nasty thing to say.
Onko tuossa mitä juuri sanoit mitään perää?
Does what you just said make any sense?
Eiköhän tuo jo riitä.
That ought to be enough.
Determiner
tuo
that(pointed at by the speaker; compare se, see usage notes)
Näetkö tuon talon?
Can you see that house?
Mistä tuo valo tulee?
Where is that light coming from?
Voi tuota raukkaa.
Oh that poor thing.
Ravintola on kadun tuolla puolen.
The restaurant is on that side of the street.
Saimaa, tuo Suomen järvistä suurin
Saimaa, the largest of all the lakes in Finland
Usage notes
Both tuo and se can mean "that". The distinction between the two is complicated, but intrinsically understood by native speakers.
The main difference between the two is that tuo is used when the speaker is somehow indicating at the referent, such as when pointing at it with a finger, looking at it directly, or with other gestures. Otherwise, se is used, especially if it is the addressee who is indicating at something.
Another description is that tuo implies a closer mental connection to or focus at the speaker, while se implies a closer mental connection to or focus at the addressee.
When se is used to introduce the addressee to something new or to refer to a physical entity, it tends to be close or near to them in some way (not necessarily physically). That is to say, se tends to be used as a medial demonstrative and tuo as a distal demonstrative.
According to Etelämäki (2009), tuo and se are distinguished by the former expressing referential openness and the latter implying adequate knownness of the referent. In other words, se implies that all participants in the conversion are aware of the referent, while tuo does not, as the referent may still be in the process of identification during the utterance. According to the same article, tämä expresses indexical asymmetry and tuoindexical symmetry; that is to say, tämä implies that the referent is more easily accessible to the speaker than to the addressed, and tuo does not.
Some sources claim that se is anaphoric (referring to a previous expression), while tuo is deictic (referring to physical entities). However, se also has deictic uses, and tuo can be used anaphorically as well (but such uses are limited, generally only to provide emphasis).
When actively distinguishing between "this" and "that", tuo is more commonly used than se for the latter.
Declension
Declension type 19 (suo) is used, except that the singular and plural forms come from different sources, so the declension can be called irregular. The forms in brackets are never or very rarely used.
*) See the usage notes at tuo for the difference between se and tuo.
References
^ Etelämäki, Marja. The Finnish demonstrative pronouns in light of interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, Volume 41, Issue 1, January 2009, pp. 25-46.
Further reading
“tuo”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-01
Tämä, tuo vai se?. Kielikello (4/2001). An article analyzing the usage and differences between the Finnish demonstrative pronouns tämä, tuo and se. (in Finnish)
In the singular, Latin tuum underwent *ʊu > *ou > *ɔu dissimilation, cf. Sardiniantou, and also Latinōvum > Italianòvo, Spanishhuevo, ultimately producing , and a plural . Italian then underwent its regular *wɔV > *uV sound change, cf. *bwɔe > bue, *mjɛu > mio, producing ultimately . This latter sound change is blocked by a following , which explains the plural form tuoi, cf. *mjɛi > miei.
In South Karelian, the medial determiners are used instead of the distal series. Dialectally, the determiners are used as in North Karelian, distinguishing all three series.
References
P. Zaykov, L. Rugoyeva (1999) “tuo”, in Карельско-Русский словарь (Северно-Карельские диалекты) [Karelian-Russian dictionary (North Karelian dialects)], Petrozavodsk, →ISBN
Pertti Virtaranta, Raija Koponen (2009) “tuo”, in Marja Torikka, editor, Karjalan kielen sanakirja, Helsinki: Kotus, →ISSN
tuo in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.