Breakdown of Onko tämä kansallinen päätös laillinen?
tämä
this
olla
to be
päätös
decision
kansallinen
national
laillinen
legal
Questions & Answers about Onko tämä kansallinen päätös laillinen?
The lesson is about the '-llinen' suffix. How exactly was kansallinen formed here?
It is formed by taking the noun kansa (a people or a nation) and adding the suffix -llinen. This highly productive suffix turns nouns into adjectives meaning "pertaining to" or "having the quality of" that noun. Thus, kansa becomes kansallinen (national).
I know the word for law is laki. How does it become laillinen in this sentence?
When adding the -llinen suffix, you must attach it to the word's inflectional stem, which often triggers consonant gradation. For laki, the 'k' disappears in the weak grade, leaving the stem lai-. Add -llinen to that stem and you get laillinen (legal).
What kind of word is päätös and how does it relate to the verb for deciding?
Päätös (decision) is a noun derived from the verb päättää (to decide). The suffix -ös (or -os, depending on vowel harmony) is frequently added to a verb stem to create a noun that describes the result of the action.
Why does the sentence start with Onko instead of Tämä?
In Finnish, yes/no questions are formed using the question suffix -ko or -kö. The strict rule is that the word carrying this suffix must be placed at the very beginning of the sentence. Since we are asking "Is...", the verb on takes the suffix and moves to the front to become Onko.
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