Breakdown of Tänään alennuskin on nelinkertainen.
olla
to be
tänään
today
-kin
also / too (suffix)
alennus
the discount
nelinkertainen
quadruple
Questions & Answers about Tänään alennuskin on nelinkertainen.
How is nelinkertainen formed, and why isn't it neljänkertainen?
The suffix -nkertainen (meaning "-fold") is usually added to the genitive form of a number. However, the number neljä (four) uses a special combining root, neli-, in many compound words. Therefore, we use nelin- instead of neljän-, giving us nelinkertainen.
Where does the suffix -kertainen actually come from?
It comes from the noun kerta, which means "time" or "occasion" (as in doing something "four times"). The common adjective suffix -inen is added to turn it into a descriptive word. So literally, nelinkertainen means something like "of a four-time nature".
Why is the suffix -kin attached to alennus here?
The suffix -kin means "also," "too," or "even." By attaching it to alennus (discount), the speaker emphasizes that "the discount too" or "even the discount" is quadruple today. This implies that something else might also be multiplied or that this fourfold discount is a surprising bonus.
If I wanted to say "the discount grew fourfold" instead of "is quadruple", would I still use nelinkertainen?
You would need to change its case. Because "growing" implies a change into a new state, you would use the translative case: Alennus kasvoi nelinkertaiseksi (The discount grew fourfold). In our example, it describes a simple current state with the verb on (is), so the basic nominative case nelinkertainen is used.
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