Questions & Answers about Juomme tänään vihreää teetä.
Why is it vihreää instead of just the basic word vihreä?
In Finnish, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe. This means they take the same case ending. Because teetä (tea) is in the partitive case, the adjective vihreä (green) must also take the partitive ending, becoming vihreää.
Why do vihreää and teetä need to be in the partitive case in the first place?
Tea is a mass noun, meaning it is an uncountable substance (like water, coffee, or rice). When you are doing something to an unspecified amount of a mass noun—like drinking some green tea—the object of the sentence must be in the partitive case.
How exactly is the partitive formed for vihreä and tee?
For vihreä, you simply add another -ä to the end to get vihreää. For tee, the partitive ending is -tä, giving us teetä. We use the front vowel versions (-ä and -tä instead of -a or -ta) because of vowel harmony rules.
Where is the word for "we"?
In Finnish, you can often leave out the personal pronouns for "I" (minä) and "we" (me). The -mme ending on the verb juomme (we drink) already makes it completely clear who is doing the drinking!