Breakdown of Hänellä on ruudulliset lapaset ja yksiväriset sukkahousut.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
ja
and
yksivärinen
solid-colored
lapanen
mitten
sukkahousut
tights
ruudullinen
checkered
Questions & Answers about Hänellä on ruudulliset lapaset ja yksiväriset sukkahousut.
This lesson is about using the partitive plural for adjectives, so why are ruudulliset and yksiväriset in the nominative plural (-t) instead?
The partitive plural is used when an adjective comes after the verb to describe the subject (for example, Lapaset ovat ruudullisia - The mittens are checkered). In this sentence, the adjectives are attached directly in front of the nouns they describe (ruudulliset lapaset). These are called attributive adjectives, and they must always match the exact case of their noun.
Why are the nouns (lapaset, sukkahousut) in the nominative plural (-t) here rather than the partitive?
In a Finnish "have" sentence (Hänellä on...), the things being possessed are grammatically the subject. For countable plural things, this subject takes the nominative plural (-t). You would only use the partitive here if the possessed thing was an uncountable mass noun (like Hänellä on aikaa - He has time).
What is the singular dictionary form of sukkahousut (tights)?
There isn't a singular form! Just like the words "tights" or "pants" in English, sukkahousut (a compound of sukka and housut) is a plural-only word. It always takes plural endings.
Both ruudulliset and yksiväriset end in -set. What is their basic dictionary form?
Their base forms end in -nen: ruudullinen (checkered) and yksivärinen (solid-colored). When making these words plural, the -nen changes to -se- before adding the plural marker -t.
Since he has multiple things, why is the verb on (is) instead of ovat (are)?
In the Finnish possessive structure (Hänellä on), the verb is strictly frozen in the third-person singular (on). Even when the things being owned are plural, the verb never changes to ovat.
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