Questions & Answers about Tanssija on tämän uuden näytelmän tekijä.
How is the word tanssija formed?
It is an actor noun created by adding the suffix -ja to the verb tanssia (to dance). For verb type 1 verbs like this, you simply take the infinitive, drop the final -a or -ä, and add -ja or -jä.
Tekijä (creator) comes from the verb tehdä (to make/do). Why does the stem change to teki- instead of staying as teke-?
Tehdä is a type 2 verb, and its inflectional stem is teke-. When you add the actor suffix -jä to a stem ending in e, that e almost always changes to an i because the combination "ej" is awkward in Finnish. So, teke- + -jä becomes tekijä.
Why is the phrase tämän uuden näytelmän in the genitive case?
In English, we say "the creator of this new play." Finnish expresses this relationship using the genitive case (the -n ending). Every word in that descriptive chain—tämä (this), uusi (new), and näytelmä (play)—must agree and take the genitive ending.
As a refresher, why does uusi change to uuden in the genitive?