Breakdown of Kolmekymmentä ihmistä matkustaa Viroon.
ihminen
human
kolmekymmentä
thirty
matkustaa
to travel
Viro
Estonia
Questions & Answers about Kolmekymmentä ihmistä matkustaa Viroon.
Why is the word for people in the partitive case (ihmistä)?
In Finnish, any number greater than one must be followed by the partitive singular form of the noun. So, after the number kolmekymmentä (thirty), the basic word ihminen (person) becomes ihmistä.
Since there are thirty people, why is the verb matkustaa (singular) instead of matkustavat (plural)?
When the subject of a sentence is a number followed by a partitive noun (like Kolmekymmentä ihmistä), the verb must always be in the singular form. The grammar treats the thirty people as one single group, so it uses the he/she/it form of the verb.
Why does Viro (Estonia) become Viroon here?
The -on ending shows movement into a place (called the illative case), which translates to 'to Estonia' here. To form this for Viro, you double the last vowel (o) and add -n.
How do we get ihmistä from the dictionary word ihminen?
Words ending in -nen (like ihminen) belong to a special word type in Finnish. To make them partitive, you drop the -nen and add -stä or -sta. Because ihminen has front vowels (i and e), vowel harmony rules mean we use the front-vowel ending -stä, making it ihmistä.
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