Breakdown of Vapaaehtoiset olivat innokkaita auttamaan maastopaloissa.
olla
to be
auttaa
to help
vapaaehtoinen
volunteer
innokas
eager
maastopalo
wildfire
Questions & Answers about Vapaaehtoiset olivat innokkaita auttamaan maastopaloissa.
Why do we use auttamaan instead of the basic infinitive auttaa?
Adjectives expressing eagerness, readiness, or ability, such as innokas (eager), require the following verb to be in the third infinitive illative form. That is why we add the -maan ending to the strong verb stem of auttaa.
Why is the adjective innokkaita in the partitive case?
When the subject of a sentence is a plural countable noun like vapaaehtoiset (the volunteers), the adjective describing it after the verb olla (to be) must be in the partitive plural. If there were only one volunteer, it would be in the nominative: Vapaaehtoinen oli innokas auttamaan.
How does the basic form innokas change to innokkaita?
Words ending in -kas have a strong grade stem ending in -kkaa-. To form the partitive plural, you take the stem innokkaa-, add the plural marker -i-, and then the partitive ending -ta, resulting in innokkaita.
How is the compound word maastopaloissa formed?
It is made from maasto (terrain or landscape) and palo (fire). The -issa ending is the plural inessive case, meaning 'in the', which gives us 'in the wildfires'.
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