Breakdown of Huutokauppa loppuu kahdenkymmenenyhden huudon jälkeen.
kaksikymmentäyksi
twenty-one
loppua
to end
jälkeen
after
huuto
bid
huutokauppa
auction
Questions & Answers about Huutokauppa loppuu kahdenkymmenenyhden huudon jälkeen.
Why is 'twenty-one' written as one giant word, kahdenkymmenenyhden, with so many changes?
In Finnish, when a compound number takes a case ending, every part of the number has to match. Because the postposition jälkeen requires the genitive case, the number 21 (kaksikymmentäyksi) must be put into the genitive. Kaksi becomes kahden, kymmentä goes to its base genitive kymmenen, and yksi becomes yhden.
Why does the middle part of kahdenkymmenenyhden look exactly like the basic word for ten (kymmenen)?
It is actually in the genitive case, but it happens to look identical to the nominative! The basic dictionary word for ten is kymmenen. Its word stem is kymmene-, so when you add the genitive -n, you get kymmenen. Even though it looks unchanged, it is grammatically in the genitive case to match the rest of the number.
Why do both the number and the word huudon (bid) have to be in the genitive case here?
They are governed by the postposition jälkeen (after). In Finnish, most postpositions require the noun phrase immediately preceding them to be in the genitive case. Since 'twenty-one bids' acts as a single connected phrase, both the compound number and the noun must take the genitive -n ending.
If I wanted to write 'twenty-one' using digits in this sentence, how would I attach the case ending?
You would write 21:n. When attaching case endings to numbers written as digits, you add a colon and the grammatical ending of the final spoken word. Since the final part is yhden (which ends in -n), the numeral takes :n.
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