Breakdown of Ostin kauniin matkamuiston Virosta.
kaunis
beautiful
ostaa
to buy
Viro
Estonia
matkamuisto
the souvenir
Questions & Answers about Ostin kauniin matkamuiston Virosta.
Why is the past tense verb ostin instead of ostain?
The verb is ostaa (to buy). To form the past tense, you start with the basic stem osta-. For two-syllable Type 1 verbs where the first vowel is o or u, the final a of the stem changes to i in the past tense. So, osta- becomes osti-, and with the -n ending for 'I', it becomes ostin.
Why do kauniin and matkamuiston both end in -n?
They make up the object of the sentence (the thing you bought). Because you bought one complete souvenir, the object takes the -n ending (the accusative case). The adjective kaunis (beautiful) must match the noun it describes, so it also takes the -n ending.
How does the basic adjective kaunis become kauniin?
Words ending in -is, like kaunis, have a special stem. When you add endings to them, the -is changes to a double -ii-. So the stem of kaunis is kaunii-, and when you add the -n object ending, you get kauniin.
Why use Virosta to say 'from Estonia' rather than another 'from' ending?
Viro is Estonia. When you buy or bring something 'from' a country, city, or building, Finnish typically uses the 'out of' ending -sta or -stä (the elative case). It emphasizes that the souvenir originated out of Estonia.
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