Breakdown of Mehiläiset tuottavat vahaa kennoissansakin.
tuottaa
to produce
mehiläinen
bee
kenno
the honeycomb
vaha
the wax
Questions & Answers about Mehiläiset tuottavat vahaa kennoissansakin.
How do all the suffixes stack up in kennoissansakin?
This word is a perfect example of the strict Finnish suffix order taught in this lesson: Stem + Plural + Case + Possessive + Enclitic.
- Stem: kenno (honeycomb/cell)
- Plural: -i-
- Case: -ssa- (inessive: "in")
- Possessive: -nsa- (3rd person: "their")
- Enclitic: -kin ("even" or "also")
Put it all together: kenno
- i
- ssa
- nsa
- kin = kennoissansakin.
- nsa
- ssa
- i
Could I use the shorter third-person possessive suffix (like -aan) instead of -nsa here?
Yes, you can. In modern Finnish, you will actually hear kennoissaankin more often than kennoissansakin. The vowel-lengthening possessive suffix (-Vn) attaches just as easily to the inessive case (kennoissa + an + kin). However, -nsa is grammatically perfect and is often used in writing to make the structural blocks very distinct.
Why does the final 'o' in kenno stay when the plural -i- is added, instead of dropping or changing?