Questions & Answers about He ostavat tänään suklaata.
Why is the word for chocolate in the partitive form suklaata instead of the basic form suklaa?
Suklaa (chocolate) is an uncountable word, also known as a mass noun. Because they are buying an unspecified amount of it (meaning "some chocolate" rather than one specific whole thing), it needs to be in the partitive case.
Why does the partitive ending for suklaa use -ta instead of just -a?
The basic form suklaa ends in a long vowel (two of the same vowel). In Finnish, when a word ends in a long vowel or a combination of two different vowels, the partitive ending is -ta or -tä. Because of vowel harmony, the back vowels in suklaa mean we add -ta, giving us suklaata.
How does the verb ostavat work here?
The dictionary form is ostaa (to buy). To match the pronoun he (they), we add the ending -vat. Finnish does not have a separate continuous tense like English does, so he ostavat translates to both "they buy" and "they are buying".
Can I put tänään at the end of the sentence like in English?
Yes, you can! Finnish word order is very flexible. He ostavat suklaata tänään is perfectly correct. Placing tänään (today) right after the verb is just a very common and natural way to structure sentences in Finnish.
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