Question 1

Why is the past tense of maksaa formed as maksoi instead of maksai?

Accepted Answer

Maksaa (to cost or to pay) is a Type 1 verb ending in -aa. When forming the past tense, we add the past tense marker -i to the stem. However, Finnish does not allow the vowel combination ai at the end of these verbs, so the final a of the stem (maksa-) mutates into an o. That is why maksa plus i becomes maksoi.

Question 2

I learned before that maksaa means to pay. How do I know it means to cost here?

Accepted Answer

You can tell by looking at the subject of the sentence. If the subject is a person, maksaa usually means to pay, such as Minä maksoin (I paid). When the subject is an inanimate item like käsityö (handicraft), it means to cost.

Question 3

Why is euroa in the partitive case?

Accepted Answer

In Finnish, any number greater than one requires the noun following it to be in the partitive singular form. Since the price is kaksikymmentä (twenty), the base word euro becomes euroa.

Question 4

Is käsityö a compound word?

Accepted Answer

Yes! It is made of käsi (hand) and työ (work). You will see työ at the end of many Finnish words related to tasks, jobs, or creations, such as kotityö (housework) or koulutyö (schoolwork).

Question 5

Why does the number kaksikymmentä end in -tä?

Accepted Answer

The number 20 is literally two tens. It combines kaksi (two) with kymmentä, which is the partitive form of kymmenen (ten). This follows the exact same rule as euroa: the number two (kaksi) forces the word after it (kymmenen) into the partitive case.

Tämä paikallinen käsityö maksoi kaksikymmentä euroa.

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