Breakdown of Asiakkaat ovat usein kärsimättömiä ja kiittämättömiä meille.
olla
to be
ja
and
me
we
usein
often
asiakas
the customer
kärsimätön
impatient
kiittämätön
ungrateful
Questions & Answers about Asiakkaat ovat usein kärsimättömiä ja kiittämättömiä meille.
Why is the pronoun in the allative case (meille) here?
This is the core rule for adjectives describing an interpersonal attitude or behavior toward someone. Just like you would say someone is ystävällinen minulle (friendly to me) or vihainen hänelle (angry at him), adjectives like kärsimätön (impatient) and kiittämätön (ungrateful) require the allative case to show who the behavior is directed at.
Since Asiakkaat is in the nominative plural, why are the adjectives kärsimättömiä and kiittämättömiä in the partitive plural?
In Finnish, when you have a plural subject (like asiakkaat) and you use an adjective to describe it with the verb olla, that predicative adjective usually goes into the partitive plural. If you used the nominative plural (kärsimättömät), it would sound like you are specifying which exact customers you mean, translating closer to 'The customers are the impatient ones'.
How are the adjectives kärsimätön and kiittämätön formed?
They both use the negative suffix -mätön (meaning 'without' or 'un-'). Kärsimätön comes from the verb kärsiä (to suffer or endure), making it literally 'un-enduring' or impatient. Kiittämätön comes from kiittää (to thank), making it 'un-thanking' or ungrateful.
Why does the ending -mätön change to -mättömiä in the partitive plural?
Words ending in -ton or -tön undergo a stem change where the -t- strengthens to -tt- and an -oma- or -ömä- is added. To form the partitive plural, the plural marker -i- is added to that stem, which drops the final vowel and takes the partitive ending -ä, resulting in the -ttömiä ending.
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