Questions & Answers about Kaupungissa on paljon vähemmistöjä.
Why is the verb on (is) singular when the sentence translates to 'There ARE many minorities'?
This is a classic Finnish existential sentence (a 'there is/are' sentence). It starts with a location (kaupungissa), followed by the verb, and then the subject. In these sentences, the verb is always in the singular 3rd person (on), even if the subject following it is plural.
Why is vähemmistöjä in the partitive plural here?
The word paljon (a lot / many) always requires the word that follows it to be in the partitive case. Since we are talking about multiple distinct minority groups rather than an uncountable mass, we use the partitive plural (vähemmistöjä) instead of the partitive singular.
Does the word vähemmistö (minority) relate to the fractions and proportions taught in this lesson?
Yes! While not a strict mathematical fraction, vähemmistö (minority) and its opposite enemmistö (majority) are essential words for expressing proportions of a whole. It is formed from the comparative word vähemmän (less) plus the collective suffix -istö (meaning a group of).
Why does kaupunki change to kaupungissa? What happens to the 'k'?
Adding the inessive ending -ssa (in) closes the final syllable of the word. This triggers consonant gradation, causing the strong nk in kaupunki to change to the weak ng in kaupungissa.
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