Breakdown of Parvi suojelee kuningatarta.
suojella
to protect (e.g., a person, nature)
kuningatar
queen
parvi
swarm
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Questions & Answers about Parvi suojelee kuningatarta.
Why is the verb suojelee in the singular when a swarm is made up of many insects or birds?
Even though parvi (swarm or flock) refers to a group of many individuals, it is grammatically a singular noun. In Finnish, collective subjects take a third-person singular verb. This is very similar to English, where we say 'the swarm protects' rather than 'the swarm protect'.
Why is the object kuningatarta in the partitive case?
How is the partitive form kuningatarta formed from the base word kuningatar?
Words ending in the suffix -tar or -tär (which are often used for female titles) form their partitive by simply adding -ta or -tä. Therefore, kuningatar becomes kuningatarta.
What is the base form of suojelee and how does it conjugate here?
The infinitive is suojella (to protect), which is a type 3 verb. You form the present stem by dropping the final -la, giving you suojele-. For the third-person singular, you double the final vowel of the stem, resulting in suojelee.