Breakdown of Haluan silittää kumpaakin eläintä.
haluta
to want
eläin
animal
kumpikin
both / each (of two)
silittää
to pet / to stroke
Questions & Answers about Haluan silittää kumpaakin eläintä.
How do we get the form kumpaakin from the dictionary word kumpikin?
The word kumpikin means both or each of the two. When you inflect it, the case ending goes in the middle, right before the -kin suffix. The first part is kumpi. Its partitive form is kumpaa. Add the -kin suffix back onto the end, and you get kumpaakin.
Why are kumpaakin and eläintä in the partitive case here?
Because of the verb silittää. It is a partitive verb, meaning the object you are petting must be in the partitive case. Both the pronoun (kumpaakin) and the noun it modifies (eläintä) must agree and be in the partitive case.
Why is eläintä singular when the English translation says animals in the plural?
Grammatically, kumpikin works like the English word each, meaning it requires a singular noun. So while English says both animals, Finnish conceptually says each of the two animal. Because the sentence requires the partitive case, we use the singular partitive eläintä instead of the plural partitive.
I remember silittää meaning to iron. Is this the same verb?
Yes! Silittää means both to iron and to pet. You can easily tell which meaning is intended from the context. You wouldn't iron an eläin (animal), so here it definitely means to pet.