Breakdown of Naiset siivosivat pihan luudilla ja haravoilla.
ja
and
nainen
woman
piha
yard
siivota
to clean
luuta
broom
harava
rake
Questions & Answers about Naiset siivosivat pihan luudilla ja haravoilla.
The adessive case (-lla/-llä) usually means "on". Why is it used here for "with"?
In addition to location (like pöydällä - on the table), the adessive case is used to express the instrument or tool you use to do an action. In Finnish, you do not use a separate preposition for "with" a tool; instead, luudilla ja haravoilla translates to "by means of brooms and rakes".
How do we get the form luudilla from the word luuta (broom)?
To make the adessive plural, you need the weak plural stem. The word luuta undergoes consonant gradation (the strong t weakens to d), and the final -a drops to make room for the plural marker -i-. This gives the stem luudi-. Finally, you add the adessive ending -lla, resulting in luudilla (with brooms).
Why does harava (rake) change to haravoilla instead of just "haravilla"?
For words ending in -a that have three or more syllables, the final -a usually changes to -o- before the plural -i- is added. Therefore, the plural stem of harava becomes haravoi-. Adding the adessive ending -lla gives you haravoilla.
Why is the yard (piha) written as pihan with an -n ending?
Pihan is the object of the sentence. Because the action is completed—meaning the women finished cleaning the entire yard—the object takes the -n ending (the total object). If the cleaning was still in progress or they only cleaned a part of the yard, it would be in the partitive case (pihaa).
What is the dictionary form of the verb siivosivat?
It comes from the verb siivota (to clean), which is a Type 4 verb. In the past tense, the stem of Type 4 verbs changes so that the -t- becomes an -s-, creating the past stem siivosi-. Then we add the "they" ending -vat to match naiset (the women).
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