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?
As a quick refresher from earlier plural rules: when a noun ends in -o or -ö, that vowel is "strong" and doesn't disappear when the plural -i- is added. Instead, they just sit next to each other to form a diphthong. So kenno + i becomes the plural stem kennoi- before the other suffixes are added.
Why is vahaa in the partitive case?
Vaha (wax) is an uncountable mass noun. When an uncountable noun is the object of an affirmative sentence (the thing being produced), it must be in the partitive case to indicate an unspecified amount of it. The bees produce [some amount of] wax.
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