Breakdown of Tämä esine on posliinia, jota en halua rikkoa.
tämä
this
olla
to be
ei
no / not (negative verb)
haluta
to want
rikkoa
to break
joka
who / which (relative pronoun)
esine
object
posliini
porcelain
Questions & Answers about Tämä esine on posliinia, jota en halua rikkoa.
Why is the relative pronoun jota in the partitive case here?
How do we know jota refers to the porcelain and not the item (esine)?
The relative pronoun joka (along with its case forms like jota) almost always refers to the noun immediately before the comma. Since posliinia comes right before the comma, that is what the pronoun refers to.
Why is the word for porcelain also in the partitive case (posliinia) in the first half of the sentence?
posliini is a mass noun, meaning it represents an uncountable material. When describing what material an object consists of, Finnish puts that material in the partitive case.
When would I use the plural partitive form joita instead of jota?
You would use joita if the relative pronoun referred back to a plural word. Because posliinia (porcelain) is a singular mass noun, we use the singular form jota.
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