Questions & Answers about Huono sää pilasi mahtavan keikan.
How is the past tense formed in pilasi?
Pilasi comes from the Verb Type 4 word pilata (to ruin). To form the past tense for this verb type, take the stem (pila-) and add the past tense marker -si-. Since this is the third-person singular (the weather), there is no personal ending added after -si, leaving us with pilasi.
Why do both words in mahtavan keikan end in -n?
They are the object of the sentence. Because the weather completely ruined the gig (a fully completed action), the object takes the accusative case, which looks like the genitive and ends in -n. The adjective mahtava (awesome) must take the same ending to match the noun keikka.
The basic word for gig is keikka. Why does keikan only have one k?
This is an example of consonant gradation, a rule you met in earlier lessons. Adding the -n ending closes the final syllable of the word. This forces the word into its weak grade, causing the double kk in keikka to shorten to a single k in keikan.