Breakdown of Tulva jätti monet perheet kodittomiksi.
jättää
to leave (something behind)
perhe
family
moni
many (a)
tulva
flood
Questions & Answers about Tulva jätti monet perheet kodittomiksi.
Why does the word for 'homeless' end in -ksi in this sentence?
The verb jättää (to leave someone or something in a state) requires the resulting state to be in the translative case, which ends in -ksi. Even though English simply says the flood left them 'homeless', Finnish treats this grammatically as leaving them 'into the state of being homeless'.
Why is it kodittomiksi rather than the singular kodittomaksi?
The adjective describing the resulting state must agree in number with the object it modifies. Because the object monet perheet (many families) is plural, the translative adjective also needs the plural marker -i-, giving us kodittomiksi.
Why is the object monet perheet instead of the partitive monia perheitä?
Because the action of the flood is viewed as a completed result that entirely changed their situation. When an action is complete and affects a total group, Finnish uses the 'total object' form. For plural nouns, this form looks exactly like the standard nominative plural ending in -t.
How do we build kodittomiksi from the base word koti (home)?