Breakdown of Vaihdoimme sata euroa pankissa.
euro
euro
sata
one hundred
pankki
the bank
vaihtaa
to exchange / to change (switch)
Questions & Answers about Vaihdoimme sata euroa pankissa.
How do we get vaihdoimme from the verb vaihtaa?
Vaihtaa is a Type 1 verb. To form the past tense, we add the past marker -i. When a verb's first vowel is a, e, or i (like the a in vai), the final a changes to o before the -i. So, the stem vaihta- becomes vaihtoi-. Finally, we add the 'we' ending -mme.
Why does vaihtaa have ht but vaihdoimme has hd?
This is consonant gradation. When we add the personal ending -mme, it closes the syllable (vaih-doim-me). A closed syllable forces the strong consonant combination ht to weaken to hd. If it were 'he exchanged' (hän vaihtoi), the syllable would be open, so the strong ht would stay.
Why is it euroa instead of just euro?
In Finnish, any number greater than one requires the word following it to be in the partitive singular case. Since we are saying sata (one hundred), the word euro takes the partitive ending -a to become euroa.
Why is sata in its basic dictionary form if it is the object of the sentence?
When a number greater than one is the object of an action, the number itself typically stays in its basic nominative form. It doesn't take an object ending like -n. It is only the noun it counts (euroa) that is forced into the partitive case.
Why does pankissa only have one k when the word for bank is pankki?
This is another example of consonant gradation. Adding the 'in' ending -ssa to pankki closes the final syllable (pan-kis-sa). This forces the strong double kk to weaken to a single k.
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