Questions & Answers about Miksi vatsasi on kipeä?
How do we get the meaning 'your stomach' from the word vatsasi?
In standard Finnish, you show ownership by adding a possessive suffix to the end of a noun. Here, the base word is vatsa (stomach), and we add the second-person singular suffix -si (your) directly to the end of it to make vatsasi.
Shouldn't it be sinun vatsasi to say 'your stomach'?
You can say sinun vatsasi, but in standard written Finnish, the pronoun sinun (your) is optional because the suffix -si already tells us whose stomach it is. It is very common to drop the words for 'my' and 'your' and just rely on the noun endings -ni and -si.
How would I change this sentence to ask 'Why is my stomach sore?'
You simply change the possessive suffix on the noun. Instead of -si (your), use the first-person singular suffix -ni (my). The new sentence is Miksi vatsani on kipeä?
Why is the adjective kipeä in its basic form rather than the partitive form (kipeää)?
Because a stomach (vatsa) is a singular, countable thing. When describing a complete, singular noun with the verb olla (to be), the adjective stays in the basic nominative form. You would only use the partitive form if you were describing a mass noun, like weather or milk.
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