Breakdown of Huomasin, että yhdet rintaliivit ovat todella kalliit.
olla
to be
kallis
expensive
yksi
one
että
that (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Huomasin, että yhdet rintaliivit ovat todella kalliit.
Why do we use yhdet (plural "ones") instead of just yksi here?
Rintaliivit (bra) is a plural-only word in Finnish, much like "pants" or "glasses" in English. When you count plural-only words or matched pairs, you must use the plural forms of numbers. So, "one bra" is expressed as yhdet rintaliivit.
Since we are only talking about a single bra, why is the verb ovat in the plural?
In Finnish, the grammatical form dictates the verb rather than the real-world quantity. Because the subject yhdet rintaliivit is in the plural nominative case, the verb must agree with it and take the plural form ovat. This is similar to how we say "these pants are" in English even when talking about one item.
Why does the sentence use kalliit instead of the basic form kallis?
The adjective must agree in number with the noun it describes. Since the subject yhdet rintaliivit is grammatically plural, the adjective kallis (expensive) must also take its plural nominative form, kalliit.
What is the literal meaning of the word rintaliivit?
It is a compound word made of rinta (chest or breast) and liivit (vest or bodice). Because the base word liivit is already a plural-only noun, the entire compound word functions as a plural, which is why it requires plural numbers like yhdet.