Breakdown of Tykkään noista sukkahousuista, koska ne ovat ruudullisia.
olla
to be
tuo
that
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
koska
because
Questions & Answers about Tykkään noista sukkahousuista, koska ne ovat ruudullisia.
Why is ruudullisia in the partitive plural instead of the nominative plural (ruudulliset)?
The subject ne (referring to the tights) is a plural word. In Finnish, when you describe a plural subject with the verb to be (olla), the describing adjective (the subject complement) is usually in the partitive plural. So, ruudullisia is the partitive plural of the adjective ruudullinen.
Why are noista and sukkahousuista in the elative case (ending in -ista)?
The verb tykätä (to like) always requires the thing being liked to be in the elative case (-sta or -stä). Since we are talking about a plural noun, we use the plural elative ending -ista for both the demonstrative pronoun (noista) and the noun (sukkahousuista).
Why use ne for 'they' here instead of he?
In standard Finnish, the pronoun he is strictly used for people. Since we are talking about tights (inanimate objects), we must use ne, which is the plural of se (it).
Does sukkahousut (tights) act as a plural grammatically even though it is one item of clothing?