Breakdown of Onko uusi yhdistelmä sekä kätevä että halpa?
olla
to be
uusi
new
halpa
cheap
että
that (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Onko uusi yhdistelmä sekä kätevä että halpa?
How does the sekä ... että structure work in this sentence?
Sekä ... että means "both ... and". It links two similar things together. Here, it links the two adjectives kätevä (convenient) and halpa (cheap). The words it links must be in the same case, which in this sentence is the basic nominative case.
Why are kätevä and halpa in the basic nominative case instead of the partitive case?
In an "A is B" sentence, the adjective describing the subject stays in the nominative if the subject is a single, countable thing. Since yhdistelmä (bundle or combination) is one countable thing, the adjectives describing it do not take a partitive ending here.
Does the word yhdistelmä relate to other Finnish words?
Yes! It comes from the verb yhdistää (to connect or combine), which itself is related to yksi (one) and yhdessä (together). The -elmä ending is often used to make nouns out of verbs, so yhdistelmä literally means a "combination".
Why is the word for "is" written as onko instead of just on?
The suffix -ko is the question particle. When you want to turn a statement into a yes/no question, you move the verb to the front of the sentence and attach -ko (or -kö) to it, making it Onko.