Breakdown of Savua ei tule savuttimistammekaan!
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
tulla
to come
savu
smoke
savutin
the smoker
Questions & Answers about Savua ei tule savuttimistammekaan!
Can you break down all the suffixes attached to savuttimistammekaan?
Let's look at the strict suffix order: Stem + Plural + Case + Possessive + Clitic. The base word is savutin (a smoker). The stem is savuttim-, followed by the plural -i-, the elative case -sta- (out of), the first-person plural possessive -mme- (our), and finally the enclitic particle -kaan (even).
Why does the base word savutin change to savuttimi- before the case endings?
Words ending in -in (like puhelin or savutin) have a stem ending in -ime-. When you add the plural marker -i-, the -e- at the end of the stem is dropped, leaving -imi-. So, savuttime- plus -i- becomes savuttimi-.
Why is the clitic at the end of the word -kaan instead of -kin?
The enclitic particles -kaan (or -kään) and -kin both mean 'also' or 'even'. However, because this is a negative sentence (ei tule), you must use the negative counterpart -kaan. If the sentence were positive, it would be savuttimistammekin.
Why is the word for smoke (savua) in the partitive case here?
This is an existential sentence expressing that something comes from (or exists in) a place. In negative existential sentences, the subject is always in the partitive case. Additionally, savu is an uncountable mass noun, which often takes the partitive subject form anyway.
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