Breakdown of Me kuuntelimme juttua surullisin kasvoin.
me
we
kuunnella
to listen to
juttu
the story
surullinen
sad
kasvot
face
Questions & Answers about Me kuuntelimme juttua surullisin kasvoin.
Why do surullisin and kasvoin end in -n, and how does that translate to 'with'?
This is the instructive case you are learning in this lesson! It expresses how or by what means something is done. It is almost always used in the plural, taking the ending -in. Here, it turns 'sad faces' into the manner of listening: 'with sad faces.'
Surullisin looks exactly like the superlative form meaning 'the saddest'. Is that a coincidence?
Yes, it is a complete coincidence! Here, surullisin is the instructive plural of surullinen (sad). Because adjectives must agree with the noun they describe, it is formed by taking the plural stem surullisi- and adding the instructive -n to match kasvoin. It just happens to look identical to the superlative!
Is kasvoin formed from a singular word for face?
No, the Finnish word for face is kasvot, which is a plural-only word (just like 'scissors' or 'glasses' in English). To form the instructive case, you take the plural stem kasvoi- and add the ending -n.
Why is juttua in the partitive case here? We listened to the whole story, didn't we?
The basic verb is kuunnella. Why does the conjugated form kuuntelimme have an -nt- instead of -nn-?
This is due to reverse consonant gradation. For verb type 3 words like kuunnella, the dictionary form shows the weak grade (nn). When you conjugate it, the consonants flip to the strong grade (nt), which gives us the stem kuunteli- before adding the past tense and personal endings.
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