Questions & Answers about Nämä housut ovat uudet.
Why is housut plural here? Are we talking about multiple pairs of trousers?
Not necessarily! Just like in English (where we say trousers or pants), housut is a plural-only word. Even if you are pointing to a single item of clothing, you must use the plural form.
Why do we use nämä instead of tämä?
Because housut is grammatically plural, the demonstrative word pointing to it must also be plural. Tämä means "this", while nämä means "these".
Why does the adjective uusi change to uudet?
In Finnish, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe, even when they are separated by the verb olla (to be). Since housut is plural, the adjective "new" must also take the nominative plural form.
How exactly does the dictionary form uusi become uudet?
The word uusi belongs to a group of old Finnish words ending in -si that have a stem ending in -te- (making the stem uute-). To make it plural, we add the plural marker -t to the end. This closes the last syllable (-tet), which triggers consonant gradation. The strong t in the stem weakens to a d, resulting in uudet.
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