Questions & Answers about Tuolla on paljon hedelmiä.
Why is hedelmiä in the partitive plural here?
The word paljon (a lot) always requires the word following it to be in the partitive case. Because fruits are countable things (you can have one fruit or two fruits), Finnish uses the partitive plural. If it were an uncountable mass word like water, you would use the partitive singular instead (paljon vettä).
How do you form the partitive plural hedelmiä from the basic word hedelmä?
To make the partitive plural, you need the plural marker -i- and the partitive ending (in this case, -ä). The basic word hedelmä ends in -ä. When we add the plural -i-, that final -ä drops out. So the math is: hedelm- + -i- + -ä = hedelmiä.
If there are many fruits, why is the verb singular (on) instead of plural (ovat)?
This is an "existential" sentence, which states that something exists somewhere and usually starts with a location (tuolla). In these sentences, the verb is always in the third-person singular (on), even if the things existing are plural. Plus, the word paljon always takes a singular verb.
Why use tuolla for "over there" instead of siellä?
Both words mean "there," but tuolla is used when you are pointing at something or when the place is physically in your line of sight ("over there"). The word siellä is typically used for a place you cannot see right now or a place you were just talking about.
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