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Questions & Answers about Silkki on pehmeää.
Why is pehmeää in the partitive case here instead of the basic nominative form (pehmeä)?
Because silkki (silk) is a mass noun—an uncountable material. When describing a mass noun or an abstract concept with the verb olla (to be), the adjective describing it must be in the partitive case.
If the subject was a regular, countable object, would the adjective still be in the partitive?
No, if the subject is a countable, singular noun, the adjective stays in the basic nominative case. For example, "The chair is soft" is Tuoli on pehmeä. We only use pehmeää here because silkki is an uncountable material.
Since silkki is a mass noun, why doesn't it also go into the partitive case (silkkiä)?
In a standard "A is B" descriptive sentence like this one, the subject (silkki) remains in the nominative case, even when it's a mass noun. Only the adjective describing it at the end of the sentence changes to the partitive.
Why is the partitive ending for pehmeä an -ä instead of an -a?
This is a quick reminder of vowel harmony! The word pehmeä contains the front vowels e and ä. Because it doesn't have any back vowels (a, o, u), the ending must also use a front vowel, giving us pehmeää rather than "pehmeäa".