Proportional adjectives (-nkertainen)

Bargain Hunting

When shopping for a good deal, you might find yourself at a clearance sale (alennusmyynti) analyzing the discounts (alennus).

We are at the clearance sale, and the discounts are big.
Me olemme alennusmyynnissä, ja alennukset ovat suuria.

Proportional Adjectives

To express multipliers like "double" or "triple," add the suffix -nkertainen (similar to the English "-fold") to a number's root. Notice how the roots for kolme and neljä slightly change to kolmi- and neli-.

BaseProportional AdjectiveMeaning
kaksi (2)kaksinkertainendouble
kolme (3)kolminkertainentriple
neljä (4)nelinkertainenquadruple
kymmenen (10)kymmenkertainentenfold
moni (many)moninkertainenmultiple

These adjectives are perfect for comparing sale prices to the normal price (normaalihinta) or calculating your savings (säästö).

The normal price of this bag is double.
Tämän laukun normaalihinta on kaksinkertainen.
That price per kilo is triple.
Tuo kilohinta on kolminkertainen.
The price per kilo of the small package is almost tenfold.
Pienen pakkauksen kilohinta on melkein kymmenkertainen.
The saving too is truly many times greater.
Säästökin on todella moninkertainen.

Plural Agreement

Because words ending in -nkertainen are standard adjectives, they must agree with the nouns they describe. When describing a plural subject, the predicative adjective takes the partitive plural.

For adjectives ending in -nen, the partitive plural ending is -sia. Therefore, -kertainen becomes -kertaisia.

These savings are quadruple!
Nämä säästöt ovat nelinkertaisia!