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Questions & Answers about Kaikki on valmista.
Why is the adjective valmista in the partitive case instead of the basic form valmis?
When you are describing a general, abstract situation (like 'everything') rather than a specific person or countable object, Finnish uses the partitive case for the describing adjective. This is why we use valmista instead of valmis.
Why does this sentence use the singular verb on when 'everything' sounds like many things?
In Finnish, when kaikki means 'everything' as an abstract whole, it acts as a singular word and takes the singular verb on. If kaikki meant 'everyone' (referring to a group of people), it would usually take the plural verb ovat.
How do we get valmista from the basic dictionary word valmis?
The basic word for 'ready' is valmis. For many Finnish words ending in -is, you form the partitive case by replacing the final -s with -sta. This standard spelling rule gives us valmista.