Questions & Answers about Verhoiltu sohva maksaa sata euroa.
How do we form the past passive participle verhoiltu, and what verb does it come from?
It comes from the verb verhoilla (to upholster). To make the past passive participle for a verb ending in -lla, you drop the final -a and add -tu. Here it acts exactly like an adjective describing a completed action, meaning "upholstered".
Since verhoiltu acts as an adjective, does it need to match the word it describes?
Yes! Because sohva is in the basic nominative case, verhoiltu is also in the nominative. If we said "I bought an upholstered sofa", both would change cases to match: Ostin verhoillun sohvan. The participle bends to match the noun's case and number just like a regular adjective.
Maksaa means "to pay", so how do we know this means "costs"?
The verb maksaa does double duty in Finnish: it means both "to pay" and "to cost". You can easily tell them apart by looking at the subject. If a person is the subject, they are paying. Since a sofa cannot pay for things, maksaa means "costs" in this sentence.
Why is the price sata euroa instead of a regular partitive object?
When maksaa means "to cost", the price is a measure of quantity rather than a direct object, so the number stays in the basic nominative case (sata). The word euroa is only in the partitive case because it directly follows a number greater than one.