Breakdown of Sairas mies palaa uuteen apteekkiin.
uusi
new
mies
man
sairas
sick
palata
to return
apteekki
pharmacy
Questions & Answers about Sairas mies palaa uuteen apteekkiin.
Why do both uuteen and apteekkiin have doubled vowels followed by -n?
They are in the illative case, which expresses movement "into" or "to" a place. In Finnish, adjectives must match the noun they describe. The ending for this case is usually formed by doubling the last vowel of the word's stem and adding -n.
I know the word for "new" is uusi. How does it become uuteen?
Many Finnish words ending in -si, like uusi (new) or vesi (water), change their -si to -te- before adding most grammatical endings. So, the stem becomes uute-, and when you add the illative ending (-en), it becomes uuteen.
Wait, doesn't palaa mean "burns"?
It can! Finnish has two different verbs that look exactly the same in this form: palata (to return) and palaa (to burn). Both become palaa for the "he/she/it" form. You have to rely on context, and here it makes much more sense that the man returns to the pharmacy rather than burning it!
Why does apteekkiin keep its double kk? Doesn't it usually drop one k when we add an ending?
You are thinking of consonant gradation, where double consonants weaken (like dropping a k) when certain endings are added (for example, apteekki becomes apteekin in the "of" form). However, the illative case ending (-iin) is special because it does not trigger this weakening. The word stays in its "strong" grade, so the double kk remains.
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