Breakdown of Hän on yksi maailman tunnetuimmista kriitikoista.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
yksi
one
maailma
world
tunnettu
famous (well-known)
kriitikko
the critic
Questions & Answers about Hän on yksi maailman tunnetuimmista kriitikoista.
Why are tunnetuimmista and kriitikoista in the elative (-sta) case?
This is the standard way to form the "one of the..." construction in Finnish. The word yksi (one) requires the following adjectives and nouns to be in the elative plural (-ista or -istä), which literally translates to "out of". So, yksi ... tunnetuimmista kriitikoista means "one out of the most famous critics".
How is the superlative tunnetuimmista formed from the base adjective?
The base adjective is tunnettu (known or famous). Its basic superlative is tunnetuin (most famous). When superlatives are put into plural cases, the -in ending changes to an -immi- stem. Adding the elative ending -sta to this plural stem gives us tunnetuimmista.
Why is the word for world (maailman) in the genitive case here?
In Finnish, instead of saying "in the world" with a location case like maailmassa, superlative phrases typically use the genitive case to say "the world's". Therefore, maailman tunnetuimmista literally translates to "of the world's most famous".
What happened to the double kk in the word kriitikko?
Consonant gradation! The base word for critic is kriitikko. When adding the plural -i- and the elative ending -sta, the syllable becomes closed. This forces the strong double kk to weaken into a single k, resulting in kriitikoista.
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