Questions & Answers about Minä pelkään isoja risteyksiä.
Why are isoja and risteyksiä in the partitive case here?
The verb pelätä (to be afraid of / to fear) is a partitive verb. This means it always requires its object to be in the partitive case. Because we are talking about multiple intersections, we use the partitive plural.
Why isn't there a word for "of" in the Finnish sentence?
In English, we say "afraid of," but the Finnish verb pelätä translates more directly to "to fear." The concept of "of" is built into the verb itself, which connects directly to its partitive object without needing an extra preposition.
How do we get isoja from the basic word iso (big)?
To make the partitive plural, you take the base word iso, add the plural marker -i-, and then the partitive ending -a. The combination iso + i + a turns into isoja because Finnish often changes an i between two vowels into a j to make it easier to pronounce.
The basic word for intersection is risteys. How does it become risteyksiä?
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