Questions & Answers about Syö leipää ja juo maitoa.
How do we form the command words syö and juo from their dictionary forms?
Both of these come from Verb Type 2 words: syödä (to eat) and juoda (to drink). To make the command form (imperative) for one person, you take the dictionary form and drop the final -dä or -da. You can also think of it as taking the I form (syön, juon) and dropping the -n.
Since syö and juo look identical to the he/she forms, how do we know these are commands?
For Verb Type 2, the singular command form happens to look exactly the same as the he/she form (hän syö, hän juo). You can tell this sentence is a command because there is no subject (like hän or a person's name) before the verbs.
Why are the words for bread and milk in the partitive case (leipää, maitoa) instead of their basic forms?
Food and drinks are usually uncountable mass nouns. Because the sentence is telling someone to eat and drink an unspecified amount of them, these objects must take the partitive ending (-ä or -a).
Do I need to include the word sinä (you) before these commands?
No, you usually leave sinä out. Just like in English, the verb's command form already implies that you are telling you to do it. Adding sinä would sound unnatural unless you are trying to be very emphatic, like pointing at someone and saying YOU eat bread!
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