This and That, Here and There

[Rekkari]

Hmmm...

I come home, walk in the door, and don't see my wife. So I shout, "Missä sinä olet?" and she answers from the kitchen, "Minä olen täällä!". I hear her voice coming from the kitchen, so now I know where she is.

I don't understand what is 'stupid' about the above exchange. What's the problem?

[Jukka Aho]

Hmmm...

I come home, walk in the door, and don't see my wife. So I shout, "Missä sinä olet?" and she answers from the kitchen, "Minä olen täällä!". I hear her voice coming from the kitchen, so now I know where she is.

I don't understand what is 'stupid' about the above exchange. What's the problem?

No problem at all. Except that in an actual conversation, the answer would likely be economized into just a single word instead of using a complete sentence: “Täällä!” (And in an actual, casual conversation, you’d probably say “Missä sä oot?”)

In case mere “Täällä!” wouldn’t suffice for an answer, you’d probably continue the dialog with “Missä ‘täällä’?”. The answer to that, in turn, would be something like “No täällä!”, or even “No täällä täällä!”, maybe with a tone of voice that hints it should be quite obvious where the speaker might be, or with an assumption that repeatedly hollering something (anything) would help you locate the person speaking without them having to bother explicitly state their whereabouts.

Or then again, you could get a more direct answer, such as “Keittiössä!”

[AldenG]

See the previous thread siellä ja tuolla for some discussion.

This reminds me, I wonder whether Rob A ever got around to seeing The Man Who Wasn't There and how he liked it.

Just to add a little lateralism, I mean.

[Pursuivant]

Well, in French you ask "who is there" and the answer is "person" meaning nobody