Breakdown of Virheetön arvoesine on kallein.
olla
to be
kallis
expensive
arvoesine
valuable item
virheetön
flawless
Questions & Answers about Virheetön arvoesine on kallein.
What is the grammatical rule behind the spelling of virheetön?
It is formed by attaching the caritive suffix -tön (meaning 'without' or '-less') to the noun virhe (flaw or mistake). When adding -tön or -ton to a word, the final vowel of the basic word stem is always lengthened. Thus, virhe gets an extra e, becoming virheetön.
How does the word kallis turn into the superlative kallein in this sentence?
Words ending in -is (like kallis) have a vowel-stem ending in -ii- or -ei-. For kallis, the base stem is kallei-. When adding the superlative marker -in, the vowels merge and simplify, resulting in the form kallein (the most expensive).
Why is kallein in the nominative case here rather than the partitive?
Because the subject arvoesine (valuable item) is a countable, singular noun. When describing a countable noun with the verb olla (to be), the predicative adjective must be in the nominative case. If the subject were an uncountable mass noun, like kulta (gold), the adjective would take the partitive case, as in 'kulta on kalleinta'.
What are the components of the compound word arvoesine?
It is simply made of the nouns arvo (value or worth) and esine (object or item). Put together in the nominative case, they form a common compound word meaning 'a valuable item' or 'an article of value'.
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