Breakdown of Siivoojat siivoavat sairaalan mopeilla ja koneilla.
ja
and
siivota
to clean
sairaala
the hospital
siivooja
the cleaner
moppi
mop
kone
machine
Questions & Answers about Siivoojat siivoavat sairaalan mopeilla ja koneilla.
How does the word moppi become mopeilla?
The base word is moppi. First, the double pp weakens to a single p (consonant gradation). Then, the final word-ending i changes to an e before adding the plural -i-. Finally, we attach the adessive ending -lla, resulting in mopeilla.
Why do we use the adessive endings (-lla/-llä) for the mops and machines here?
While the adessive case is often used for location (meaning 'on top of'), it is also the case used to express a tool or instrument. So mopeilla ja koneilla translates to doing the cleaning 'with mops and machines'.
The stem for kone (machine) is konee-. Why is it koneilla instead of koneeilla?
Words ending in -e have a stem with two es, like konee-. However, when adding the plural -i-, one of those es drops out so we do not end up with three vowels in a row. Therefore, konee- + -i- + -lla becomes koneilla.
Why is sairaalan (hospital) in the genitive case ending in -n?
sairaalan is the object of the sentence. Because the cleaners are cleaning the entire hospital (a complete action), it takes the genitive -n ending to show it is a total object. If they were only cleaning part of it, we would use the partitive case (sairaalaa).
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