Learn Finnish: Ihmiset tutustuivat toisiinsa kaksilla jatkoilla ja kolmissa polttareissa. - People got to know each other at two afterparties and three bachelor parties.

Ihmiset tutustuivat toisiinsa kaksilla jatkoilla ja kolmissa polttareissa.

People got to know each other at two afterparties and three bachelor parties.

Breakdown of Ihmiset tutustuivat toisiinsa kaksilla jatkoilla ja kolmissa polttareissa.

Questions & Answers about Ihmiset tutustuivat toisiinsa kaksilla jatkoilla ja kolmissa polttareissa.

Why are the numbers in the plural forms kaksilla and kolmissa instead of the singular kahdella and kolmessa?

Because jatkot (afterparty) and polttarit (bachelor party) are plural-only words, known as pluralia tantum. When counting these plural-only nouns, the numeral must also be in the plural and agree with the noun's case. Therefore, we use the adessive plural kaksilla and the inessive plural kolmissa.

Why do we use the adessive case for jatkoilla but the inessive case for polttareissa?

Different types of events conventionally take different local cases in Finnish. Jatkot takes the external locative (adessive) -lla, just like festivaaleilla or syntymäpäivillä. However, polttarit takes the internal locative (inessive) -ssa, similar to häissä (at a wedding) or juhlissa (at a party).

Why is the word toisiinsa in the illative (into) case?

The verb tutustua (to get to know / to familiarize oneself with) requires its target to be in the illative case. Here, the target is the reciprocal pronoun toinen, which means 'each other' when used in the plural. The plural illative of toinen is toisiin, and adding the third-person possessive suffix -nsa gives us toisiinsa.