Breakdown of Mahtuvatko nämä ohjelmat noihin uusiin laitteisiin?
tämä
this
tuo
that
uusi
new
mahtua
to fit into
ohjelma
program
laite
device / ride (amusement park attraction)
Questions & Answers about Mahtuvatko nämä ohjelmat noihin uusiin laitteisiin?
How does the word nuo (those) become noihin?
The base word is nuo (those). Short pronouns often have slightly irregular stems in the plural. The plural stem for nuo is noi-. To form the illative plural ("into those"), we add the suffix -hin, resulting in noihin.
Why does uusiin just take -in, but laitteisiin takes -siin?
The illative plural has three main endings (-iin, -ihin, and -siin) depending on the word type. uusi (new) uses its plural stem uusi- and takes the standard -in ending, becoming uusiin. laite (device) is an -e ending word. These words have a strong plural stem ending in a double vowel (laittee-). Whenever a plural stem ends in a long vowel or double vowel, the illative plural suffix is -siin.
Why do we use the illative ("into") case for the devices?
The verb mahtua (to fit) requires the destination to be in the illative case. Even if you might say something fits "in" or "on" a device in English, Finnish treats fitting as a movement into a space. Because of this, the whole phrase "those new devices" must take illative plural endings (noihin uusiin laitteisiin).
Let's break down Mahtuvatko. Why is it in this form?
The base verb is mahtua (to fit). Because the subject of the sentence is plural (nämä ohjelmat / these programs), the verb must be conjugated in the "they" form: mahtuvat. Finally, the question particle -ko is attached to the very end to turn the statement into a yes/no question.
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