Breakdown of Opettaja löysi rahaa noista vanhoista papereista.
tuo
that
vanha
old
opettaja
teacher
raha
money
löytää
to find
paperi
paper
Questions & Answers about Opettaja löysi rahaa noista vanhoista papereista.
Why does the sentence use the "from" case (-sta) for the papers instead of "in" like in English?
In Finnish, the verb löytää (to find) requires you to find things from a place, not in a place. That is why we use the elative case ending -sta, rather than the inessive -ssa.
How do the words vanha and paperi change to get the -ista ending?
The ending -ista combines the plural marker -i- and the elative ending -sta. For paperi, the final -i changes to -e- before the plural -i-, making papereista. For vanha, the final -a changes to -o-, making vanhoista.
Where does the word noista come from?
It is the elative plural of tuo (that). The plural stem for tuo is noi-. When you add the elative ending -sta (from), you get noista (from those).
Why do noista, vanhoista, and papereista all have the same ending?
In Finnish, pronouns and adjectives must match the case and number of the noun they describe. Because papereista is in the elative plural, the words for "those" and "old" must also take the elative plural endings.
Why is rahaa in the partitive case?
Money is an uncountable mass noun. Because the teacher found an unspecified amount of money (just "some money", not "all the money"), it takes the partitive case ending -a.
Learn Opettaja löysi rahaa noista vanhoista papereista and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free