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Questions & Answers about Käytä kuulokkeita.
The lesson is about the negative imperative (älä). How would I say "Don't use headphones"?
You use älä plus the exact verb form you see here! The affirmative imperative käytä is identical to the connegative stem. So "Don't use headphones" is simply Älä käytä kuulokkeita.
The dictionary form of the verb is käyttää. Why does the command form käytä only have one t?
To find the command form for "you" (singular), you start with the "minä" form (käytän) and drop the -n. The -n ending closes the syllable, which triggers consonant gradation and changes the strong tt to a weak t.
Why is the word for headphones (kuulokkeita) in the partitive case here?
The verb käyttää (to use) is a partitive verb, meaning its object is almost always in the partitive case. Because headphones are a plural item, it uses the partitive plural.
What is the dictionary form of kuulokkeita and how does its stem work?
The dictionary form is kuuloke. For Finnish words ending in -e, the stem doubles that vowel to -ee- before adding endings. So the stem is kuulokkee-, and adding the partitive plural ending -ita creates kuulokkeita.