Questions & Answers about Nämä kassit ovat painavia.
Why is the adjective painavia in the partitive plural here?
In Finnish, when you describe a plural subject using the verb olla (to be), the describing adjective is almost always in the partitive plural. So, while a singular bag is Tämä kassi on painava, plural bags are Nämä kassit ovat painavia.
How do we build the form painavia from the basic word painava?
To make the partitive plural, we need the plural marker -i- and the partitive ending -a. When we add -ia to painava, the final -a of the base word drops out so we don't have too many vowels in a row. So, painava becomes painav- plus -ia, giving us painavia.
Why is the subject Nämä kassit in the regular plural instead of the partitive plural?
The subject of a standard sentence is usually in the basic plural (nominative case). You only use the partitive plural for a subject when you are saying there is 'some' of an undefined amount (like in the sentence Täällä on kasseja - 'There are some bags here'). Since we are pointing to these specific bags, the subject stays in the basic plural.
Why do we use nämä instead of tämä for the word 'these'?
Just like in English where 'this' changes to 'these', Finnish pointer words must match the noun they are attached to. Because kassit is plural, the word tämä (this) must change to its plural form, nämä (these).
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