Questions & Answers about Viisi mehiläistä istuu kukassa.
Why is the verb istuu in the singular form when there are multiple bees?
In Finnish, when the subject of a sentence is a quantity starting with a number other than one, the verb must be in the third-person singular. Even though there are five bees, you use istuu instead of the plural istuvat.
Why is mehiläistä in the partitive singular instead of a plural form?
After any number greater than one, the noun being counted must be in the partitive singular. So, the number viisi forces mehiläinen to take the singular partitive form, regardless of how many bees there actually are.
How does the dictionary form mehiläinen (bee) change into mehiläistä?
For words ending in -nen, you drop the -nen and replace it with -s- before adding the case ending. Here, we add the partitive ending -tä (because of vowel harmony) to get mehiläistä.
Why does the sentence use kukassa (in the flower) instead of kukalla (on the flower)?
Both are grammatically correct, but kukassa (the inessive case) implies the bee is nestled deep inside the petals of the flower. This is a very natural and common way for Finns to describe insects on blooming plants.