Breakdown of Sekä korjaaja että pomo ovat epätoivoisia.
olla
to be
pomo
boss
että
that (conjunction)
sekä
both
Questions & Answers about Sekä korjaaja että pomo ovat epätoivoisia.
How does the sekä ... että structure work here?
This is a fixed conjunction pair meaning "both ... and ...". You place sekä before the first item (korjaaja) and että before the second (pomo).
Why is the verb ovat plural when korjaaja and pomo are in the singular form?
Because the sekä ... että structure links them into a combined plural subject. Since we are talking about two distinct people, the verb must take the plural form ovat instead of the singular on.
Why is the adjective epätoivoisia in the partitive plural?
In Finnish, when an adjective describes a plural subject using the verb "to be" (predicative adjective), it generally must be in the partitive plural. Since the subject here consists of two people, the adjective takes the plural partitive ending.
What is the base form of epätoivoisia and how does it change to this form?
The dictionary form is epätoivoinen (desperate). For adjectives ending in -nen, the stem changes to -se-. Adding the plural marker -i- and the partitive ending -a creates the final form epätoivoisia.