Questions & Answers about Tämä kuoro edustaa useita järjestöjä.
Why do we use the partitive plural form useita instead of just usea?
As a quantifier, usea (several) acts like an adjective and must agree with the noun it modifies. Since the sentence requires a partitive plural object, usea becomes useita to match järjestöjä.
Why is the object useita järjestöjä in the partitive case to begin with?
The verb edustaa (to represent) is a partitive verb. Its object must always be in the partitive case, so we use the partitive plural here instead of the nominative plural.
How exactly is the word useita formed from the base word usea?
To form the partitive plural, you take the base word usea, add the plural marker -i- to create the stem usei-, and finally attach the partitive ending -ta.
Why does useita take the -ta ending while järjestöjä takes the -jä ending?
Partitive plural endings change depending on the word's stem. Because the plural stem usei- ends in a vowel combination, it takes the -ta ending. For nouns ending in -ö like järjestö, the plural partitive is formed with a -j- instead of an -i-, resulting in the -jä ending.