Breakdown of Mitä kuviota suosit enemmän, pyöreää vai kulmikasta?
vai
or (in questions)
mikä
what
enemmän
more (comparative of paljon)
suosia
to favor
Questions & Answers about Mitä kuviota suosit enemmän, pyöreää vai kulmikasta?
Why are kuviota, pyöreää, and kulmikasta all in the partitive case here?
They are in the partitive because of the verb suosia (to favor). Suosia is a partitive verb, meaning its object must always be in the partitive case. Since pyöreää (round) and kulmikasta (angular) are adjectives describing the object kuviota (pattern), they must match its case even though they appear later in the sentence.
Why does this sentence use vai instead of tai for the word "or"?
In Finnish, vai is used specifically in questions where you are asking the listener to choose between mutually exclusive options (either A or B). Tai is used in statements, or in questions where you aren't forcing a strict choice. Since this question asks you to pick exactly one of the two specific patterns, vai is the only correct choice.
How could I use the toinen ... toinen (one ... the other) structure from this lesson to answer the question?
If you wanted to compare the two options when answering, you could say something like: Toinen on liian pyöreä, joten suosin toista (One is too round, so I favor the other). Notice how the second toinen becomes toista (partitive) to act as the object of the partitive verb suosia!
What role does enemmän play here?