Word
Temppeleissä ja haudoissa oli paljon vanhoja luita.
Meaning
There were many old bones in the temples and graves.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Temppeleissä ja haudoissa oli paljon vanhoja luita.
Why does the sentence use the singular verb oli instead of the plural olivat for 'many bones'?
This is an existential sentence (expressing that something exists somewhere). In Finnish, existential sentences usually start with the location, and the verb is always locked to the third-person singular (oli), even if the things existing are plural.
Why are the words vanhoja luita in the partitive plural?
The word paljon (a lot / many) dictates the case of the words that follow it, requiring them to be in the partitive. Because bones are countable objects, we use the partitive plural.
How do we get from the basic word for 'grave' to haudoissa?
The basic form is hauta. When we add the plural inessive ending (-issa) to mean 'in the graves', two things happen. First, the closed syllable triggers consonant gradation, softening the t to a d. Second, because the first vowel of the word is an a, the final a changes to an o before the plural i, resulting in haudoissa.
How is the plural luita formed from the basic word luu?