Breakdown of Mehiläiset pölyttävät kukkia puutarhoissammekin.
kukka
flower
puutarha
garden
mehiläinen
bee
pölyttää
to pollinate
Questions & Answers about Mehiläiset pölyttävät kukkia puutarhoissammekin.
How do the suffixes stack up in the word puutarhoissammekin?
This word perfectly follows the strict Finnish suffix order: Stem + Plural + Case + Possessive + Enclitic. The stem is puutarha (garden). We add the plural -i-, the inessive case -ssa (in), the possessive -mme (our), and finally the enclitic particle -kin (even/also).
Why does the final -a in puutarha turn into an -o- before the plural -i-?
When adding the plural -i- to a noun ending in -a, the final vowel changes to -o- if the first vowel of the word is a, u, or o. Because puutarha is a compound word (puu + tarha), the rule applies to its second part. The first vowel of tarha is a, so the plural stem becomes puutarhoi-.
Why is kukkia in the partitive case here?
The verb pölyttää (to pollinate) describes an ongoing or unbounded action. The bees are pollinating an indefinite number of flowers, not a specific, closed group of them, which requires the partitive plural.
Does the verb pölyttävät come from the word pöly (dust)?
Yes! Pollen in Finnish is siitepöly (literally seed dust). The verb pölyttää means to dust or to cover in dust, which naturally became the word for pollinating when applied to plants.
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