Breakdown of Kaikki on valmista paitsi kaakeli.
olla
to be
valmis
ready
kaikki
all, everything, everyone
kaakeli
tile
paitsi
except (for), besides
Questions & Answers about Kaikki on valmista paitsi kaakeli.
Why is the adjective valmista in the partitive case here instead of the nominative valmis?
The subject of the sentence is the abstract word kaikki (everything). When kaikki means "everything" in a general, uncountable sense, the adjective describing it must be in the partitive case.
Why does kaikki take the singular verb on? Doesn't it mean "all"?
When kaikki means "everything," it is treated as a singular abstract concept, so it takes the third-person singular verb on. It only takes a plural verb (like ovat) when it refers to "everyone" or "all" of a specific group of people or countable things.
I thought paitsi (except) required the following word to be in the partitive case. Why is kaakeli in the nominative?
Paitsi often takes the partitive when used as a preposition (meaning "besides"). However, when it directly contrasts two things in a sentence, the word after paitsi simply copies the case of the word it is being compared to. Here, it contrasts with the nominative subject kaikki, so kaakeli is also nominative.
Is kaakeli a mass noun here, or does it mean just one single tile?
While kaakeli can literally mean a single tile, in Finnish construction and interior design contexts it is frequently used as an uncountable mass noun to refer to "the tilework" or "the tiling" in general.
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