Breakdown of Nuo kalliit korvakorut ovat hopeisia.
olla
to be
tuo
that
kallis
expensive
hopeinen
silver (adjective)
korvakoru
earring
Questions & Answers about Nuo kalliit korvakorut ovat hopeisia.
Why is the subject (Nuo kalliit korvakorut) in the nominative plural, but the adjective describing them (hopeisia) is in the partitive plural?
In Finnish, when you have a plural subject (like korvakorut), an adjective that comes after the verb olla to describe it (the subject complement) is almost always in the partitive plural. It tells us what kind of things they are, which triggers the partitive plural form.
How do we get from the basic dictionary form of the adjective for "silver" to hopeisia?
The basic dictionary form of the adjective is hopeinen (made of silver). For words ending in -nen, a handy trick is to replace -nen with -isia (or -isiä) to get the partitive plural. This gives us hopeisia.
Could I just say ovat hopeaa instead of ovat hopeisia to mean they are made of silver?
Yes, you can! Hopea is the noun for the metal "silver", and using its partitive singular form (hopeaa) to talk about the material an object is made of is very common. Ovat hopeaa literally means "are of silver", whereas ovat hopeisia uses the adjective form.
Do nuo and kalliit have to be in the plural form too?
Yes. In Finnish, demonstrative pronouns (like tuo becoming nuo) and adjectives (like kallis becoming kalliit) must agree with the noun they modify. Since the main subject korvakorut is in the nominative plural (ending in -t), nuo and kalliit must also be in the nominative plural.
What is the breakdown of the word korvakorut?
It is a compound word made up of korva (ear) + koru (piece of jewelry) + -t (the nominative plural marker). So it literally translates to "ear jewelries".
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