Word
Me pesemme pöydän valkoisilla liinoilla.
Meaning
We wash the table with white cloths.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Me pesemme pöydän valkoisilla liinoilla.
Why is there no word for "with" in the Finnish sentence?
In Finnish, you express doing an action "with" a tool or instrument by using the adessive case (the -lla/-llä ending). Here, both the adjective valkoinen (white) and the noun liina (cloth) take the plural adessive endings, becoming valkoisilla liinoilla (with white cloths).
How does liina (cloth) become liinoilla?
To form the plural adessive, you add the plural marker -i- and then the adessive ending -lla. When you add the plural -i- to a two-syllable word ending in -a, the -a changes to an -o-. So, liina becomes the plural stem liinoi-, resulting in liinoilla.
Why does valkoinen (white) change to valkoisilla?
Adjectives must match their noun in both number (plural) and case (adessive). Words ending in -nen, like valkoinen, change their ending to -s- when you add suffixes. The plural stem is valkoisi-, and adding the adessive -lla makes it valkoisilla.
Why is "table" written as pöydän instead of the basic form pöytä?