Breakdown of Koko kylä osallistuu talkoisiin.
koko
whole
kylä
village
osallistua
to participate
talkoot
the voluntary work party
Questions & Answers about Koko kylä osallistuu talkoisiin.
Why is talkoisiin in the illative case rather than the inessive?
In Finnish, verbs of participation and interference, such as osallistua (to participate) and puuttua (to intervene), require the illative case. Even though in English we say we participate "in" something, Finnish grammar requires you to participate "into" it.
Why is the word talkoisiin in the plural form?
The base word is talkoot (a traditional gathering for voluntary work), which is a "pluralis tantum" word, meaning it only exists in the plural form. Therefore, it must be put into the illative plural here.
How do you form the illative plural talkoisiin from talkoot?
To form the illative plural, you use the plural stem. Drop the nominative plural -t to get the stem talkoo-, change the final vowel to -i- for the plural marker (becoming talkoi-), and then add the illative plural ending -siin.
If we changed the sentence to say "in the whole village", would koko change its form?
No. The word koko (whole/entire) is a special indeclinable adjective. It never changes its form, regardless of the case of the noun it modifies. "In the whole village" would be koko kylässä.