Questions & Answers about Nämä housut ovat kalliita.
Why is the adjective kalliita in the partitive plural here?
This sentence follows the main rule for plural subject complements: when the subject of an olla (to be) sentence is plural, the adjective describing it takes the partitive plural case.
Since housut (pants) is always a plural word, how do we know if we are talking about one pair or multiple pairs?
The adjective gives it away! For "plural-only" words like housut (pants) or sakset (scissors), if you mean just one pair, you use the nominative plural: Nämä housut ovat kalliit. Because this sentence uses the partitive plural kalliita, it specifically means you are pointing to several pairs of pants.
Why isn't the subject nämä housut in the partitive plural (näitä housuja) too?
In descriptive sentences with the verb olla, the subject is almost always in the basic nominative case, whether it is singular or plural. The partitive plural rule being taught in this lesson applies to the adjective describing the subject, not the subject itself.
How do you form the partitive plural kalliita from the basic dictionary form kallis?
Adjectives ending in -is (like kallis or kaunis) change their ending to -ii- to form the plural stem. To get the partitive plural, you simply add the partitive ending -ta (or -tä) to this stem. So, kallis becomes the stem kallii-, giving us kalliita.