Breakdown of Onko teillä pehmeitä lisävuoteita?
olla
to be
te
you (plural/formal)
pehmeä
soft
lisävuode
extra bed
Questions & Answers about Onko teillä pehmeitä lisävuoteita?
How is the partitive plural lisävuoteita formed from the basic word lisävuode (extra bed)?
Lisävuode is a compound word ending in vuode (bed). Words ending in -e have a basic stem with two e's, so the stem is vuotee- (notice that the consonant also changes from d to t!). To make the partitive plural, one of the e's drops out before we add the -ita ending, giving us lisävuoteita.
Why is the final ä missing in pehmeitä? The basic word is pehmeä (soft).
When forming the partitive plural, we add -ita or -itä. If the basic word ends in a vowel pair like -eä or -ea, the very last vowel drops out to make room for the plural ending. So, pehmeä loses its final ä and becomes pehmeitä.
If we are asking about multiple beds, why do we use the singular verb onko instead of the plural ovatko?
In Finnish, the "to have" structure literally translates to "at someone is". In this specific structure, the verb olla (to be) is always frozen in the third-person singular form (on), no matter how many things are owned! So, even for plural beds, we use on (or onko to ask a question).
I remember teillä means "on you" or "at you". Is that how you ask "Do you have?"
Yes! Finnish doesn't have a direct verb for "to have". You take the person who has the thing, put them in the adessive case (the -lla/-llä ending), and follow it with on. Teillä on means "You have". By moving the verb to the front and adding the question ending -ko, we get Onko teillä (Do you have?).
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