Breakdown of Epäillyn tuntomerkki oli kolikon kokoinen arpi.
olla
to be
kolikko
coin
kokoinen
-sized / size of
epäilty
suspect
Questions & Answers about Epäillyn tuntomerkki oli kolikon kokoinen arpi.
Why is "kolikon kokoinen" written as two separate words here?
kolikon is the genitive form of kolikko (coin), modifying the adjective kokoinen (-sized). When the modifier is a standard noun, they are written as two separate words. They are usually only combined into a single word when the first part is a short pronoun, like samankokoinen (the same size) or minkäkokoinen (what size).
Where does the word "epäillyn" come from?
It is the genitive form of epäilty, meaning "suspect". Interestingly, epäilty is actually a verb form acting as a noun. It is the past passive participle of epäillä (to suspect or doubt), so it literally means "the suspected person". The genitive ending -n makes it "the suspect's".
What are the parts of the compound word "tuntomerkki"?
It is made of tunto (related to tuntea, meaning to know or recognize) and merkki (mark or sign). Together it means an identifying mark or distinguishing feature. It is the standard word used for a suspect's physical description.
Why is "arpi" in the nominative case instead of the partitive case?
This is a basic "A is B" sentence. The subject A (epäillyn tuntomerkki) is a specific thing, and the complement B (arpi, scar) is a whole, countable noun. In Finnish, when you say one specific whole thing is another specific whole thing, the complement is in the nominative case. The adjective phrase kolikon kokoinen simply matches the case of arpi.