Breakdown of Kolmasosa potilaista on yhä hauraampia.
olla
to be
yhä
still, yet (continuing)
kolmasosa
a third
potilas
the patient
hauras
frail
Questions & Answers about Kolmasosa potilaista on yhä hauraampia.
How does the word "yhä" change meaning when combined with "hauraampia"?
While yhä on its own usually means "still," combining it with a comparative adjective like hauraampia (more frail) creates the meaning of continuous change. Together, yhä hauraampia means "increasingly frail" or "more and more frail."
Why is the verb "on" in the singular when the sentence is about multiple patients?
The grammatical subject here is the fraction Kolmasosa (a third), which is singular. In Finnish, quantity words like fractions take a third-person singular verb, even when they are followed by a plural group in the elative case like potilaista (out of the patients).
If the subject is singular, why is the adjective "hauraampia" in the partitive plural?
This is a special quirk of Finnish agreement. While the verb agrees with the singular fraction Kolmasosa, the predicate adjective hauraampia describes the actual people making up that group. Since patients are countable individuals, the adjective takes the partitive plural to reflect their plurality.
What is the base form of "hauraampia" and how is this specific form built?
The base adjective is hauras (frail or fragile). Its comparative form is hauraampi. To make it partitive plural, the plural marker "i" and partitive ending "a" are added to the comparative stem, resulting in hauraampia.
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