Questions & Answers about He kuuntelevat hyvää musiikkia kotona.
Why are hyvää and musiikkia in the partitive case here?
The verb kuunnella (to listen to) is a partitive verb. This means it always forces the thing you are listening to (the object) into the partitive case. Because of this, hyvä musiikki becomes hyvää musiikkia.
Why does the adjective hyvä (good) change to hyvää?
In Finnish, adjectives must match the grammatical case of the noun they describe. Since the verb forces the noun musiikkia into the partitive case, its adjective must also take a partitive ending, becoming hyvää.
How do we get the verb form kuuntelevat from the dictionary form kuunnella?
This is a type 3 verb. To make it match he (they), the -lla ending changes to -le-, and the double consonant -nn- strengthens into -nt-. This gives us the stem kuuntele-, to which we add the -vat ending.
If koti means home, why is at home translated as kotona?
The word koti (home) is a common exception in Finnish. Instead of using the regular location endings like -ssa (in) or -lla (at), at home is always expressed with this special form: kotona. You simply have to memorize it!