Word
He saapuivat neljäntenätoista maaliskuuta.
Meaning
They arrived on the fourteenth of March.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of He saapuivat neljäntenätoista maaliskuuta.
he
they
maaliskuu
March
saapua
to arrive
neljästoista
fourteenth
Questions & Answers about He saapuivat neljäntenätoista maaliskuuta.
How is the tricky word neljäntenätoista (on the fourteenth) formed?
To say 'on a specific date', Finnish uses an ordinal number in the essive case. The word for '14th' is neljästoista. For teen numbers (11-19), only the first part of the word changes. The first part neljäs (fourth) becomes neljäntenä, and the second part -toista stays exactly the same.
Why does neljäs turn into neljänte- before adding the essive ending?
This is a common pattern for ordinal numbers. Ordinals (except first and second) end in -s, like kolmas (third) or neljäs (fourth). When you add an ending to these words, the -s changes to -nte-. So, neljäs becomes neljänte- plus the essive ending -nä to make neljäntenä.
Why is the month in the partitive case (maaliskuuta)?
When expressing dates, the month always takes the partitive case. You can think of it as saying 'on the fourteenth day OF March'. Because you are referring to a part of that month, the partitive ending -ta is added to maaliskuu.
How do we know the verb saapuivat is in the past tense?