Breakdown of Hän myy tuolla kuumaa keittoa.
hän
he / she
tuolla
over there
myydä
to sell
keitto
soup
kuuma
hot
Questions & Answers about Hän myy tuolla kuumaa keittoa.
Why does kuuma (hot) have an extra -a at the end to become kuumaa?
In Finnish, adjectives have to match the grammatical case of the noun they describe. This is called adjective agreement. Because the noun keittoa is in the partitive case, the adjective describing it must also be in the partitive case. So, kuuma gets an extra -a and becomes kuumaa.
Why are kuumaa and keittoa in the partitive case here instead of just kuuma keitto?
Keitto (soup) is an uncountable mass noun—he is selling an undefined amount of soup, not one specific, countable object. When an uncountable noun is the target of an action (the object being sold), it takes the partitive case.
I remember tuo means "that". Why does tuolla mean "over there"?
You are right that tuo means "that". When you add the ending -lla (which usually means "on" or "at"), tuolla literally means "at that". In Finnish, this is the standard way to say "over there" or "at that place".
What is the dictionary form of the verb myy?
The dictionary form is myydä (to sell). For the hän (he/she) form, the -dä ending is removed. Normally, you would lengthen the final vowel for the hän form, but since myy already ends in a double vowel, it stays exactly as myy.
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