Questions & Answers about Tämä silkki ja villa tulevat kylmistä maista.
How do we get maista from the basic word maa?
The word maa (country) ends in a double vowel. To form the plural stem, we drop one vowel and add the plural marker -i-, giving us the stem mai-. Finally, we add the elative ending -sta (from/out of) to get maista.
Why does kylmistä end in -stä but maista ends in -sta?
This is because of vowel harmony. The adjective kylmä (cold) contains front vowels (y, ä), so it takes the front-vowel ending -stä. The noun maa has a back vowel (a), so it takes the back-vowel ending -sta. The adjective still matches the noun's case and number, even though the final vowel looks different.
Why is the verb tulevat in the plural form?
Even though silkki (silk) and villa (wool) are both singular words, they are joined by ja (and). Together, they form a plural subject (they), so the verb takes the plural ending -vat.
Why use the elative case (-sta / -stä) here instead of the ablative (-lta / -ltä) to mean from?