Learn Finnish: Kaksikymmentä mehiläistä tuottaa hunajaa talveksi. - Twenty bees produce honey for the winter.

In Finnish, when the subject of a sentence is a number greater than one (like kaksikymmentä), the verb always takes the 3rd person singular form. Grammatically, the number itself acts as a singular subject, so you say 'twenty produces' (kaksikymmentä tuottaa) instead of 'twenty produce'.

Is mehiläistä a singular or plural word here?

It is actually in the partitive singular. While English uses the plural for counted things ('twenty bees'), Finnish requires numbers greater than one to be followed by the partitive singular form of the noun.

Why is hunajaa in the partitive case?

Hunaja (honey) is an uncountable mass noun. Because the bees are producing an undefined amount of it (just 'honey', not a specific, countable whole), it takes the partitive case as the object of the sentence.

What case is talveksi, and how does it translate to 'for the winter'?

Talveksi is in the translative case, marked by the -ksi ending. While you might remember the translative for showing a change of state (becoming something), it is also used in time expressions to mean a timeframe or deadline, like 'for' a specific period or purpose.