Breakdown of Se on yksi ravintolan makeimmista jälkiruoista.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
ravintola
restaurant
yksi
one
makea
sweet
jälkiruoka
the dessert
Questions & Answers about Se on yksi ravintolan makeimmista jälkiruoista.
Why are makeimmista and jälkiruoista in the elative (-sta) case here?
In Finnish, to say one of the [things], you use yksi followed by the elative plural. You can think of the elative (-sta/-stä) as meaning out of in this context: one out of the sweetest desserts. Both the adjective and the noun must be in this case.
How do we get from the basic word makea (sweet) to makeimmista?
The basic superlative form is makein (the sweetest). When you put it into plural cases, the stem changes to makeimmi-, and then you add the elative ending -sta. The plural marker -i- is already built into that -immi- stem.
Why does jälkiruoka (dessert) change to jälkiruoista? Where did the k go?
Adding the plural -i and the case ending -sta triggers consonant gradation. The strong k in -ruoka disappears, leaving -ruoa-. When you add the plural -i, it blends to form the plural stem -ruoi-, to which you attach the -sta ending.
Why is ravintolan placed where it is?
The genitive word ravintolan (the restaurant's) specifies whose desserts they are. In this superlative subset construction, the standard word order is yksi + owner in the genitive + superlative adjective in the elative plural + noun in the elative plural.
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