Questions & Answers about Minä istutan siemenet puutarhaan.
Why is siemenet (the seeds) in the nominative plural ending in -t instead of the partitive plural?
In Finnish, we use the nominative plural (the basic -t ending) for an object when the action is considered complete or applies to a whole, specific group. By saying siemenet, you are saying you are planting all of the specific seeds. If you were planting an unspecified amount of seeds (some seeds), you would use the partitive plural: Minä istutan siemeniä.
How do we get from the basic word for seed (siemen) to siemenet?
Words ending in -en (like siemen) usually change the -en to -ene- before adding an ending. So, siemen becomes the stem siemene-, and then we add the plural -t to get siemenet.
The dictionary form of the verb 'to plant' is istuttaa. Why is there only one t in istutan?
This is because of consonant gradation. The personal ending -n closes the last syllable (-tan). When a syllable is closed by a consonant, a strong double tt usually weakens to a single t. So, istuttaa becomes istutan.
The English translation says 'in the garden', so why does Finnish use the illative case (puutarhaan, into the garden)?
In Finnish, verbs that involve putting, leaving, building, or planting something into a location take the illative case (the 'into' direction) rather than the static 'in' case (puutarhassa). Since you are putting the seeds into the garden soil, Finnish logic requires puutarhaan.
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