Breakdown of Nämä nimet ovat vanhoissa patsaissa ja muistomerkeissä.
tämä
this
olla
to be
ja
and
vanha
old
nimi
name
patsas
the statue
muistomerkki
the monument
Questions & Answers about Nämä nimet ovat vanhoissa patsaissa ja muistomerkeissä.
Why does the adjective vanha (old) get the -issa ending too, becoming vanhoissa?
In Finnish, adjectives must match the noun they describe in both number and case. Because patsaissa (in the statues) is in the inessive plural, the adjective attached to it must also be in the inessive plural, becoming vanhoissa. Notice how the final a in vanha changes to an o before the plural i.
How does the base word patsas turn into patsaissa?
Words ending in -as or -äs have a special stem where the s is dropped and the vowel is doubled. For patsas, the stem is patsaa-. To make the inessive plural, we drop one a, add the plural marker i, and then the inessive ending -ssa, resulting in patsaissa.
What happens to the end of muistomerkki to make muistomerkeissä?
Two things happen here! First, there is consonant gradation where the strong double kk weakens to a single k when the ending is added. Second, when a word ends in -i, adding the plural i usually changes the original i to an e. So merkki becomes merkei-, and then we add -ssä.
The word muistomerkeissä has back vowels (u, o) at the beginning, so why does it take the front vowel ending -ssä instead of -ssa?
Because muistomerkki (monument) is a compound word made of muisto (memory) and merkki (mark). In compound words, the vowel harmony is always determined by the vowels in the final word of the compound. Since merkki only has the neutral vowels e and i, it takes the front vowel ending -ssä.
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