Breakdown of Tää on maalattu tuoli, ja toi on pesty matto.
tämä
this
olla
to be
tuo
that
tuoli
chair
ja
and
pestä
to wash
matto
rug
maalata
to paint
Questions & Answers about Tää on maalattu tuoli, ja toi on pesty matto.
How is the past passive participle maalattu formed here?
It comes from the verb maalata (to paint). For verb type 4, you find this form by taking the basic verb, dropping the final -a or -ä, and adding -tu or -ty. Here it becomes maalattu, which acts as an adjective meaning "painted".
Why does pesty end in -ty while maalattu ends in -tu?
This is due to vowel harmony. The verb pestä (to wash) contains the front vowel e and the front vowel ä in its infinitive, so it must take the front vowel ending -ty. Maalata has back vowels (a), so it takes the back vowel ending -tu.
Do these participle words change if the noun is in a different case?
Yes! Because they are acting as adjectives here, they must match the case of the noun they describe. If you were talking about "a painted chair" in the partitive case, it would become maalattua tuolia. Here, the nouns are in the basic nominative case, so the participles are too.
Are tää and toi standard Finnish words?
They are the very common spoken language versions of the pronouns tämä (this) and tuo (that). At the B1 level, it is highly useful to recognize and use these in conversation, though you would still write tämä and tuo in formal texts.
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