Word
Tämähän on kiva riippumatto, mutta hyttysiä on liikaa.
Meaning
This is a nice hammock, but there are too many mosquitoes.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Tämähän on kiva riippumatto, mutta hyttysiä on liikaa.
tämä
this
olla
to be
mutta
but
liikaa
too much
Questions & Answers about Tämähän on kiva riippumatto, mutta hyttysiä on liikaa.
How does the -hän ending change the meaning of Tämähän?
It adds a tone of immediate discovery or pleasant surprise. Instead of a flat statement, it sounds more like 'Oh, this is actually a nice hammock!' or 'Hey, what a nice hammock.' It softens the sentence and invites the listener to agree.
Why is the verb singular (on) when the sentence is about multiple mosquitoes?
The second half of the sentence is an existential clause, which is the Finnish way of saying 'there is' or 'there are'. In these sentences, the verb is always fixed in the third-person singular (on), regardless of how many things exist.
How do we get the form hyttysiä from the basic word for mosquito?
The basic word is hyttynen. For words ending in -nen, the stem changes to -se- before adding endings. To make it partitive plural, we add -i- for the plural and -ä for the partitive case, resulting in hyttysiä. It is in the partitive because it is the subject of an existential sentence with an undefined quantity.
What are the root words that make up riippumatto?
It is a compound word made from the verb riippua (to hang) and the noun matto (rug or carpet). So in Finnish, a hammock is quite literally a 'hanging rug'!