Breakdown of Olen tosissani. Olen todella innoissani uudesta kypärästä!
olla
to be
uusi
new
todella
really (very, intensifier)
innoissaan
excited
tosissaan
serious (in earnest)
kypärä
helmet
Questions & Answers about Olen tosissani. Olen todella innoissani uudesta kypärästä!
How do tosissani and innoissani fit the pattern of subject-bound state adverbials?
They are both formed by taking a base word, putting it into a plural local case (here, the plural inessive -issa), and adding a possessive suffix. Tosissani comes from tosi (true) and literally translates to something like 'in my truths.' Innoissani comes from into (enthusiasm) and means 'in my enthusiasms.' Together, they create adverbials that express an emotional or mental state.
If I wanted to say 'She is serious', how does tosissani change?
Because these expressions are subject-bound, the possessive suffix at the very end must match the subject of the sentence. To say 'She is serious', you replace the first-person suffix -ni (my) with a third-person ending: Hän on tosissaan.
Why is 'about the new helmet' translated using the elative case (uudesta kypärästä)?
This is a fixed grammar rule, or rection. In English you are excited 'about' something, but in Finnish, when you use state expressions of emotion like innoissaan (excited), the thing causing the emotion must be in the elative case (-sta or -stä).
Why does the root word into change so much to become innoissani?
Adding the plural inessive ending -issa to the root word triggers consonant gradation, changing the strong nt in into to a weak nn to form the stem innoissa-. After that, the first-person possessive suffix -ni is attached to match the subject 'I' (olen).
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