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Questions & Answers about Puuttuuko kaapista astioita?
How is the partitive plural astioita formed from the base word astia?
The base word is astia. When building the plural, you add the plural marker -i-. For words ending in -ia, that final -a changes into an -o- before the plural -i-. Finally, the partitive ending -ta is added. So the steps are: astia -> astioi- -> astioita.
If "dishes" is plural, why is the verb puuttuuko in the singular form rather than the plural puuttuvatko?
This is a very important rule in Finnish! Because the subject astioita is in the partitive plural (meaning an indefinite amount, "some dishes"), the verb must stay in the 3rd-person singular form (puuttuu). The verb would only be plural if you were talking about specific dishes in the nominative plural (astiat), like in Puuttuvatko astiat? (Are the dishes missing?).
Why does kaapista only have one "p" when the word for cabinet is kaappi?
This is due to consonant gradation, which you likely saw in earlier lessons. Adding a closed ending like the "from inside" ending -sta causes the strong double consonant pp in kaappi to weaken into a single p, giving us the stem kaapi-.
I've seen the verb puuttua used to mean "to interfere". How do I know it means "missing" here?