Questions & Answers about Opas näytti meille uuden nähtävyyden.
How do we form the past tense näytti from the basic verb näyttää?
Näyttää (to show) is a Type 1 verb. To form the past tense, we take the stem näyttä-. Because the stem ends in -ä, this vowel drops completely when we add the past tense marker -i, giving us näytti (he/she/it showed).
Why do uusi (new) and nähtävyys (sight) change to uuden nähtävyyden?
They are the direct object of the sentence. Because the guide showed one complete, specific sight, this total object takes the genitive case, which is marked with the -n ending. Notice how the stem of uusi changes to uude- before adding the -n.
Where does the long word nähtävyys come from?
It is built from the verb nähdä (to see). Nähtävä means something worth seeing, and the ending -yys turns it into a noun. Like many words ending in -uus or -yys, its stem changes before adding case endings, becoming nähtävyyde- here.
Why does the sentence use meille instead of just me?
Meille is the allative case of the pronoun me (we). Just like in English where you say showed it TO us, Finnish uses the allative case (which translates to onto or to) for the person receiving the action of verbs like näyttää (to show) and antaa (to give).