Breakdown of Pienet linnut asuvat vanhoissa pylväissä.
vanha
old
pieni
small
asua
to live
lintu
bird
pylväs
the pillar
Questions & Answers about Pienet linnut asuvat vanhoissa pylväissä.
How do we get vanhoissa from the dictionary word vanha (old)?
To make the plural inessive, we need the plural stem. For adjectives and nouns ending in -a (like vanha), the a changes to o before the plural marker -i-. Then we add the inessive ending -ssa. So: vanha -> vanho- + i + ssa = vanhoissa.
What happens to the word pylväs (column) to make it pylväissä?
Words ending in -s like pylväs have a basic stem ending in a double vowel (here, pylvää-). When we add the plural -i-, one of those vowels drops out, giving the plural stem pylväi-. Finally, we add the ending -ssä (using ä instead of a because of vowel harmony), resulting in pylväissä.
Why does vanhoissa have an inessive plural ending just like pylväissä?
In Finnish, adjectives must match the noun they describe in both number (singular or plural) and case. Since the noun pylväissä is in the inessive plural ('in the columns'), the adjective vanha must also take the inessive plural form vanhoissa ('in the old').
Why is the word for birds written as linnut instead of lintut?
The basic dictionary word is lintu. When we add the plural -t ending, it closes the final syllable. This triggers consonant gradation, which weakens the strong -nt- combination in the middle of the word into a weak -nn-, making it linnut.
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