Questions & Answers about Me matkustamme Viroon, pieneen kylään.
Why do the words Viroon, pieneen, and kylään all end with a double vowel plus -n?
This is the illative case, which expresses movement "into" a place. You usually form it by doubling the last vowel of the word and adding -n. That is why Viro becomes Viroon and kylä becomes kylään.
Why does the adjective pieni (small) also take an ending and become pieneen?
In Finnish, adjectives must match the grammar case of the noun they describe. Because the village is in the "into" form (kylään), the word "small" must also take that same form (pieneen).
How exactly do we build pieneen from the dictionary word pieni?
Older Finnish words ending in -i often change that -i to an -e before adding grammar endings. So pieni turns into the base form piene-. Then we apply the rule for the "into" form: double the last vowel and add -n, which results in pieneen.
Why doesn't the Finnish word for Estonia sound like "Estonia"?