Questions & Answers about Kierrätämme paperia ja muovia.
Why does kierrätämme only have one 't' when the dictionary form is kierrättää?
This is consonant gradation! Kierrättää (to recycle) is a Type 1 verb. When we add the personal ending -mme, the syllable becomes closed, which triggers the weak grade. The strong tt from the basic form changes to a weak t, giving us kierrätämme.
Why are both paperia and muovia in the partitive case?
Because they are mass nouns (uncountable materials). We are talking about recycling an unspecified, open-ended amount of paper and plastic in general, rather than specific, complete objects. Whenever you are dealing with an undefined quantity of a substance, the object takes the partitive case.
Is the verb kierrättää related to kiertää (to go around / to circle)?
Yes, it is! Kiertää means "to circulate" or "to orbit." The ending -ttää often turns a verb into a "causative" verb, meaning "to make something do the action." So kierrättää literally means "to make something circulate" — which is a perfect description of recycling!
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