Breakdown of Tämä jäsenyys on sekä halpa että kätevä.
tämä
this
olla
to be
halpa
cheap
että
that (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Tämä jäsenyys on sekä halpa että kätevä.
How exactly do you use sekä ... että in this sentence?
This pair means "both ... and". Just like in English, you place sekä right before the first thing you are describing (halpa) and että right before the second thing (kätevä).
I've learned that että means "that". Why does it mean "and" here?
You are right that että usually means "that" (as in "I think that..."). However, when it is paired with sekä, they form a fixed phrase. Together, sekä ... että always translates to "both ... and".
The word jäsenyys looks related to jäsen (member). How does that ending work?
Great catch! The suffix -yys (or -uus, depending on vowel harmony) is used to create abstract nouns, very similar to "-ship" or "-ness" in English. So, jäsen (member) becomes jäsenyys (membership).
Why are the adjectives halpa and kätevä in their basic form instead of the partitive case?
Because they are describing a specific, individual thing (tämä jäsenyys). If the subject were an uncountable mass noun (like water or weather), the adjectives would be in the partitive. But since a membership is treated as a complete, singular concept here, the adjectives stay in the basic nominative form.