Questions & Answers about Käsin leivottu leipä maistuu aina hyvältä.
Why is käsin placed before leivottu instead of after leipä?
In Finnish, when a participle like leivottu (baked) acts as an adjective to describe a noun (leipä), any words modifying that participle must be placed directly before it. So instead of 'bread baked by hand', Finnish builds a structure that literally translates to 'by-hand baked bread' (käsin leivottu leipä).
What form is the word käsin? It looks like it comes from käsi (hand), but the ending is unusual.
It comes from käsi and is in the instructive case. This is a rare grammatical case mostly used in fixed expressions to describe how or with what instrument something is done. Even though it is built on the plural stem, käsin translates simply to the general concept 'by hand'.
Why is the passive participle leivottu used here?
The passive past participle (ending in -tu/-ty or -ttu/-tty) is used because the action was done to the noun (leipä) by an unspecified person. Here, it functions entirely like an adjective, telling us the state of the bread.
Why does the sentence use hyvältä instead of the basic form hyvä?
The verb maistua (to taste) is a sensory verb, and it requires the word describing the sensation to be in the ablative case (-lta/-ltä). You will remember this same rule applies to other sensory verbs like näyttää (to look) and kuulostaa (to sound).