Learn Finnish: Minä heitän lihaa leijonille.

The base word is leijona (lion). To form the allative plural ("to the lions"), we first need the plural stem. For many words with three or more syllables ending in -a, that final -a drops when we add the plural -i-, giving the stem leijoni-. Finally, we attach the allative ending -lle (to/onto) to make leijonille.

Why is meat translated as lihaa instead of just liha?

Liha is in the partitive case here because it is an uncountable mass noun. You are throwing an unspecified amount of meat ("some meat"), not a whole, single countable object. When an object represents an indefinite mass, it takes the partitive case.

Why does heitän only have one "t"?

The dictionary form of the verb is heittää (to throw), which has a strong double -tt-. When you add the -n ending for "I", it closes the syllable. This triggers consonant gradation, weakening the double -tt- into a single -t-, resulting in heitän.

Why do we use the -lle ending for the lions?

The -lle ending is the allative case, which usually translates to "to" or "onto" in English. The verb heittää (to throw) naturally pairs with this case to show who or what is receiving the thrown object.