Breakdown of Poliisi auttaa jalankulkijoita kadulla.
katu
street
auttaa
to help
poliisi
the police / police officer
jalankulkija
pedestrian
Questions & Answers about Poliisi auttaa jalankulkijoita kadulla.
Why is jalankulkijoita in the partitive case?
The verb auttaa (to help) is a partitive verb, meaning it always requires its object to be in the partitive case. Because the police are helping multiple pedestrians, we use the partitive plural form here.
How is the partitive plural jalankulkijoita formed from the dictionary word jalankulkija?
To make the partitive plural, we add the plural marker -i- and the partitive ending -ta. For nouns ending in -ija (like jalankulkija), the final -a changes to -o- before the plural -i-. This gives us the stem jalankulkijoi-. Finally, we add -ta to get jalankulkijoita.
Jalankulkijoita is a very long word. Is it a compound word?
Yes! The basic word jalankulkija is made up of jalan (on foot) and kulkija (a person who goes or wanders). Literally, it translates to a foot-goer.
Why does the verb auttaa look like a singular 'he/she helps', when the English translation says 'the police help'?
In English, the word 'police' is treated as a plural noun. However, in Finnish, poliisi is grammatically singular when referring to the police as an institution or a single officer. Because the subject is singular, the verb takes the singular form auttaa.
Why is 'on the street' kadulla with a d, when the dictionary word for street is katu?
This is a great refresher on consonant gradation. Adding the ending -lla (on) closes the final syllable of katu. This forces the strong consonant t to change into its weak pair, d, resulting in kadulla.
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