Breakdown of Sumutatko sinä tätä herkkää kasvia kaksi kertaa päivässä?
tämä
this
sinä
you
kaksi
two
päivä
day
Questions & Answers about Sumutatko sinä tätä herkkää kasvia kaksi kertaa päivässä?
How do we form the frequency expression "twice a day" in this sentence?
It is built using the quantity kaksi kertaa (two times) followed by the time period in the inessive case, which is päivässä (in a day). This is the standard Finnish formula for saying how often something happens within a given timeframe.
Why is the word for "time" written as kertaa instead of its base form kerta?
In Finnish, any number greater than one requires the word immediately following it to be in the partitive case. Therefore, the number kaksi forces kerta to become kertaa.
Why are the words for "this sensitive plant" in the partitive case (tätä herkkää kasvia)?
The verb sumuttaa (to mist) expresses an ongoing action that does not completely consume or finish the object. Because the action does not have a definitive endpoint, the object phrase takes the partitive case, and all words in that phrase must match.
I recognize the start of sumutatko. Is it related to the word for fog?
Yes! The root noun is sumu, which means fog or mist. By adding the verb-forming suffix -ttaa, it becomes the verb sumuttaa (to spray or to mist). The -ko at the very end is the question particle that turns the verb into a yes/no question.