Learn Finnish: Otimme isokokoisen sekarotuisen koiran löytöeläintalosta. - We adopted a large-sized mixed-breed dog from the animal shelter.

Both are property adjectives formed by combining a modifier, a noun stem, and the suffix -inen. isokokoinen comes from iso (big) plus koko (size) plus -inen, meaning large-sized. sekarotuinen comes from seka- (mixed) plus rotu (breed) plus -inen, meaning mixed-breed.

Why do these adjectives end in -sen instead of -nen?

Words ending in -nen change their stem to -se- before taking case endings. Because the dog is a complete object in this affirmative sentence, koira becomes the genitive koiran. The adjectives must agree in case, so the basic -nen ending becomes -se- plus the -n genitive suffix, giving us isokokoisen and sekarotuisen.

Where does the seka- part of sekarotuisen come from?

The prefix seka- means mixed and is related to the verb sekoittaa (to mix). You will see it in many everyday compound words like sekajäte (mixed waste) or sekamehu (mixed fruit juice).

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