Questions & Answers about Tykkäätkö shakista?
Why is chess in the -sta form (shakista) instead of the partitive (shakkia)?
This is because of verb rection. The verb tykätä (to like) requires the thing you like to be in the elative case, which ends in -sta or -stä. You can think of it as saying you like 'from' something.
The basic word for chess is shakki with a double kk. Why is there only one k in shakista?
Consonant gradation! When we add the ending -sta, it closes the last syllable of the word. This triggers a change from the strong double kk to the weak single k.
If the dictionary form of the verb is tykätä (with one k), why does tykkäätkö have two?
tykätä is a type 4 verb. These verbs are tricky because they do the opposite of most nouns when it comes to consonant gradation: they have the weak grade in their dictionary form (one k) and the strong grade in their personal conjugated forms like tykkäät (double kk).
Why does the question ending use -kö instead of -ko?
This is due to vowel harmony. Since the root word tykätä contains the front vowels y and ä, any endings attached to it must also use front vowels. Therefore, we use -kö.
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