Breakdown of He kävelivät kivisen sillan yli.
he
they
kävellä
to walk
yli
past / over / across
silta
bridge
kivinen
made of stone
Questions & Answers about He kävelivät kivisen sillan yli.
How does the noun kivi become an adjective in this sentence?
The suffix -inen is a highly productive way to turn a noun into an adjective, often describing what something is made of or a quality it possesses. By adding -inen to the noun kivi (stone), we get the base adjective kivinen (made of stone).
Why is the adjective written as kivisen instead of kivinen?
Adjectives must match the case of the noun they modify. Because the noun phrase here is in the genitive case, the adjective must be too. For words ending in -nen, the stem changes by replacing -nen with -se- before adding the genitive ending -n. This makes kivinen become kivisen.
Why do kivisen and sillan both take the genitive -n ending here?
They are forced into the genitive case by the postposition yli (over/across). In Finnish, most postpositions require the entire noun phrase immediately preceding them to be in the genitive case. Since kivisen sillan (the stone bridge) acts as a single phrase, both words get the -n ending.
I know the word for bridge is silta. Why did the -lt- change to -ll- in sillan?
This is a quick refresher on consonant gradation. Adding the genitive -n closes the final syllable of the word. This triggers a change from the "strong" consonant grade to the "weak" grade. For words containing lt, the weak grade is ll, so silta becomes sillan.
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