Breakdown of Lippu maksaa kaksikymmentäyksi euroa.
maksaa
to cost
lippu
ticket
euro
euro
kaksikymmentäyksi
twenty-one
Questions & Answers about Lippu maksaa kaksikymmentäyksi euroa.
I thought the verb maksaa meant 'to pay'. Why is it translated as 'costs' here?
In Finnish, the verb maksaa is used for both 'to pay' and 'to cost'. You can tell which meaning is intended by looking at the context. Since a ticket (lippu) cannot pay for things, it must mean that the ticket costs a certain amount.
How do you break down a long number word like kaksikymmentäyksi?
Finnish numbers are built simply by gluing smaller number words together. Kaksikymmentäyksi is made of kaksi (two) + kymmentä (tens) + yksi (one). It literally translates to 'two tens one'.
Why is it euroa with an 'a' at the end, instead of just euro?
In Finnish, whenever you state a quantity of something greater than one, the noun that follows must be in the partitive case. For the word euro, the partitive form is made by simply adding an -a to the end, giving you euroa.
Wait, the number ends in yksi (one). Doesn't yksi usually take the basic form of a word?
That is a great catch! While the standalone number 1 does take the basic form (yksi euro), larger numbers that just happen to end in 1 (like 21, 31, or 101) still represent a total quantity greater than one. Because of this, standard Finnish grammar still requires you to use the partitive case (kaksikymmentäyksi euroa).