Breakdown of Älä siristä molempia silmiä.
silmä
eye
älä
don't (negative imperative)
molemmat
both (of them)
siristää
to squint
Questions & Answers about Älä siristä molempia silmiä.
Why is it molempia silmiä (partitive plural) instead of molemmat silmät (nominative/accusative plural)?
Because it is a negative command (älä siristä). In Finnish, negative sentences almost always require the object to be in the partitive case, even if you are talking about a specific, complete set of things like "both eyes."
How do we get the form molempia from the base word molemmat?
The pronoun molemmat has the base stem molempa-. To form the partitive plural, we add the plural marker -i- (which drops the final -a of the stem, making it molempi-) and then attach the partitive ending -a. This gives us molempia.
Does molemmat always have to match the noun it goes with?
Yes! It acts just like an adjective. It must agree in both case and number with the noun it modifies. Because the negative verb forces the eyes to be in the partitive plural (silmiä), "both" must also be in the partitive plural (molempia).
How is the command Älä siristä formed?
To tell one person not to do something, you use the negative imperative älä plus the verb's present tense stem. You find this stem by taking the "I" form (minä) of the verb and dropping the -n. The verb is siristää (to squint), the "minä" form is siristän, so the negative command is älä siristä.
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