Breakdown of Pidän kummastakin koirasta, mutta toinen on vanha ja toinen on vielä pentu.
olla
to be
koira
dog
mutta
but
ja
and
vanha
old
vielä
yet / still
pitää
to like
toinen
other, another; second
kumpikin
both / each (of two)
pentu
the puppy
Questions & Answers about Pidän kummastakin koirasta, mutta toinen on vanha ja toinen on vielä pentu.
Wait, doesn't toinen mean 'second'? Why does it mean 'one ... the other' here?
You are right that toinen usually means 'second' or 'other'. But when you use it twice in a row like this (toinen ... toinen), it acts as a correlative pair meaning 'one ... the other'. It is the standard way in Finnish to contrast two things you just mentioned.
Why are both kummastakin and koirasta in the -sta (elative) case?
The verb pitää (to like) always requires the thing you like to be in the elative case, ending in -sta or -stä. Since you like both dogs, both the pronoun (kumpikin) and the noun (koira) must take this ending, becoming kummastakin koirasta.
How exactly do we get the word kummastakin from the base word for 'both'?
The base word is kumpikin, meaning 'each of the two' or 'both'. It is made of kumpi (which of the two) plus the suffix -kin (also or and). When you put it in a new case, only the kumpi part changes. Here it becomes kummasta, and the -kin suffix is tacked onto the very end: kummasta + kin = kummastakin.
Could I have used molemmat (both) instead of kummastakin here?
Yes, you could have said molemmista koirista. However, kumpikin tends to emphasize the individuals separately ('each of the two'). This makes it a really natural fit here right before you split them up to describe them individually with toinen ... toinen. Note that kumpikin is grammatically singular, so it uses the singular noun koirasta, while molemmat is plural and needs koirista.
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