Breakdown of Tarvitsetko niitä punaisia huulipunia?
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
punainen
red
tarvita
to need
huulipuna
lipstick
Questions & Answers about Tarvitsetko niitä punaisia huulipunia?
Why is "those" translated as niitä instead of ne?
Niitä is the partitive plural form of se (it/that). The verb tarvita (to need) usually requires its object to be in the partitive case. Since we are talking about multiple lipsticks, we use the partitive plural form for the whole phrase: niitä punaisia huulipunia.
How does punainen (red) become punaisia?
For adjectives ending in -nen, the stem changes to -is- in the plural. To make it partitive plural, we add the ending -ia, resulting in punaisia. Because it describes the lipsticks, the adjective has to match the partitive plural case of huulipunia.
How is the partitive plural of huulipuna (lipstick) formed?
For words ending in a short -a or -ä, the partitive plural is formed by adding an -i- (which marks the plural) followed by the partitive ending -a or -ä. This makes huulipuna + i + a = huulipunia.
Let's break down the verb tarvitsetko. How is it built?