Breakdown of Hän ostaa antiikkia, jota en ymmärrä.
hän
he / she
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
ymmärtää
to understand
ostaa
to buy
joka
who / which (relative pronoun)
antiikki
antique
Questions & Answers about Hän ostaa antiikkia, jota en ymmärrä.
Why is the relative pronoun jota instead of joka?
The relative pronoun takes its case from its role in the new clause. Here, it acts as the object of ymmärtää (to understand). Since ymmärtää is a partitive verb that always requires its object to be in the partitive case, the basic pronoun joka becomes the partitive jota.
The English translation says "antiques" (plural). Why is jota in the partitive singular instead of the plural joita?
The relative pronoun has to match the number (singular or plural) of the word it refers back to. In Finnish, antiikki is usually treated as a singular mass noun, much like "furniture" or "jewelry" in English. Because antiikkia is singular, the relative pronoun referring to it must also be the singular jota.
Why is the word antiikki in the partitive case (antiikkia) in the first half of the sentence?
In the first clause, antiikkia is the object of the verb ostaa (to buy). Because he is buying an unspecified amount of an uncountable mass noun, the object takes the partitive case.
Where is the word for "I" in en ymmärrä, and why isn't it ymmärrän?
In Finnish, the negative word is an actual verb that conjugates to match the subject. The word en already means "I do not", so the pronoun minä (I) is optional and often left out. In negative sentences, the main verb drops its personal ending, which is why we see ymmärrä instead of ymmärrän.
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