Breakdown of Kuivasitko suorat hiukset tuolla pyyhkeellä?
tuo
that
pyyhe
towel
suora
straight (adjective)
hius
the hair (single strand)
kuivata
to dry
Questions & Answers about Kuivasitko suorat hiukset tuolla pyyhkeellä?
Why is "that" translated as tuolla here instead of just tuo?
Tuolla is the adessive case (ending in -lla) of the demonstrative pronoun tuo ("that"). It has to match the case of the noun it points to, which is pyyhkeellä. Because the towel is being used as a tool or instrument ("with a towel"), both words take the -lla/-llä ending.
Where does the k in pyyhkeellä come from? The dictionary word is pyyhe.
Pyyhe ("towel") is a word that ends in -e. When adding endings to these words, the final -e doubles and the word takes the strong consonant grade. This causes the hidden k to appear: pyyhe changes to the stem pyyhkee-, and then we add the -llä ending.
Why is the hair (hiukset) in the plural form, and why isn't it in the partitive case?
In Finnish, hair on the head is typically plural (hiukset), whereas in English it is an uncountable singular noun. Because the action is completed (you dried all of the hair), it acts as a total object. The total object for plural words looks exactly like the basic plural form ending in -t, which is why suorat hiukset is used instead of the partitive.
How do we get kuivasitko from the verb kuivata (to dry)?
Kuivata is a type 4 verb. To form the past tense, its present stem kuivaa- changes to kuivasi-. Then we add the "you" ending (-t) to make kuivasit ("you dried"). Finally, the question particle -ko is attached to the very end to turn it into a yes/no question.
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