Questions & Answers about Kattilan pohjalla on mustaa ruokaa.
Why are the words for "black food" (mustaa ruokaa) in the partitive case here?
This sentence is an "existential" sentence, meaning it states that something exists in a certain location. In these sentences, if the subject is an uncountable substance like ruoka (food), it must be in the partitive case.
How does the phrase kattilan pohjalla work grammatically?
To say "at the bottom of the pot", Finnish puts "pot" in the genitive (possessive) case, becoming kattilan (of the pot). Then, the word for bottom (pohja) takes the location ending -lla.
Why is it pohjalla (on the bottom) and not pohjassa (in the bottom)?
When talking about a surface that something is resting on, Finnish prefers the -lla/-llä (on) endings. Even though the bottom is inside the pot, the food is resting on that bottom surface.
How would I say this in the past tense?
You simply change on to oli. The verb olla is a Type 3 verb, so it has its own irregular past tense that doesn't use the Type 2 rules from this lesson.