Questions & Answers about Miksi rakennatte näitä navettoja?
Why is there a double tt in navettoja? Doesn't the plural usually make consonants weak?
You are thinking of the standard nominative plural, like navetat (cowsheds), where the ending -t closes the syllable and weakens the double tt to a single t. However, the partitive plural ending here is -ja. When we split navettoja into syllables (na-vet-to-ja), the syllable to is open. An open syllable means the consonants stay in the strong grade, keeping the double tt.
Where does the o come from in navettoja? The dictionary form is navetta.
When forming the plural for words that end in -a, that final -a often changes to an -o before adding the plural marker. So, the base navetta changes its last vowel to become navetto-, and then we add the partitive plural ending -ja.
Why did the nt in the dictionary form rakentaa turn into nn in rakennatte?
Rakentaa (to build) is a type 1 verb. When you conjugate it by adding the plural ending -tte, the syllable becomes closed (ra-ken-nat-te). A closed syllable forces consonant gradation, changing the strong nt into the weak nn.
Why do we use the partitive plural näitä navettoja here instead of the regular plural?
The verb rakentaa (to build) describes a process. Because you are currently in the middle of building the cowsheds, the action is incomplete. In Finnish, verbs of incomplete action require their object to be in the partitive case.
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