Questions & Answers about Lapset käyttävät uusia suojateitä.
Why are the words uusia and suojateitä in the partitive case here?
The verb käyttää (to use) is a partitive verb, meaning its object must always be in the partitive case. Since the children are using multiple crosswalks, both the adjective uusia and the noun suojateitä are in the partitive plural.
How do we get the partitive plural form uusia from the basic word uusi (new)?
To form the partitive plural, we take the plural stem of the word and add the partitive ending -a or -ä. For the word uusi, the plural stem is uusi-. Adding the partitive ending gives us uusia. Notice how this is different from the partitive singular form, which is uutta.
How is suojateitä formed from the dictionary form suojatie (crosswalk)?
Suojatie is a compound word ending in tie (road). For words ending in two different vowels, we form the plural stem by dropping the first vowel and adding the plural marker -i-. So, tie becomes tei-. Then we add the partitive plural ending -tä to get suojateitä.
The object is in the partitive plural, but why isn't the subject (lapset) also in the partitive?