Breakdown of Leikkaatko paljon siitä kiharasta tukasta?
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
paljon
a lot
leikata
to cut
tukka
the hair
kihara
curly
Questions & Answers about Leikkaatko paljon siitä kiharasta tukasta?
Why do we use siitä here instead of the basic partitive sitä?
The word se means it or that. Because the action of cutting removes a piece away from something, we need the elative case (the from or out of case). This changes se into siitä (from that).
Why do kiharasta and tukasta also end in -sta?
In Finnish, adjectives and pronouns must match the grammatical case of the noun they describe. Since the noun tukka (hair) is in the elative case (tukasta), the pronoun siitä and the adjective kihara (curly) must take the exact same -sta ending.
Doesn't the word paljon usually require the partitive case?
Yes, if you were just saying a lot of hair, it would be paljon tukkaa. But here, the speaker is asking if you are cutting a lot from a specific thing. The need to express from overrides the usual partitive rule, so the whole phrase goes into the elative case instead.
What is the base verb for leikkaatko and why does it have a double kk?
The dictionary form is leikata (to cut). It is a type 4 verb, which means its stem actually gets stronger when you conjugate it. The single k strengthens to a double kk to make leikkaat (you cut), and then we add the question particle -ko.
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