Breakdown of Emme saaneet hunajaa epäluotettavilta mehiläishoitajiltammekaan.
ei
no / not (negative verb)
saada
to get
epäluotettava
unreliable
hunaja
honey
mehiläishoitaja
the beekeeper
Questions & Answers about Emme saaneet hunajaa epäluotettavilta mehiläishoitajiltammekaan.
Can you break down the exact order of the suffixes in mehiläishoitajiltammekaan?
This word perfectly follows the strict Finnish suffix order: Stem + Plural + Case + Possessive + Enclitic. Here it is built as mehiläishoitaja (beekeeper) + -i- (plural) + -lta- (ablative case, 'from') + -mme- (possessive, 'our') + -kaan (enclitic, 'even').
Why doesn't the adjective epäluotettavilta also take the -mme and -kaan suffixes?
While adjectives must agree with the noun in number and case (which is why both have the plural -i- and the ablative -lta), possessive suffixes and enclitic particles are only attached to the head noun. Adding them to the adjective would be grammatically incorrect.
Why does the noun end in -kaan instead of -kin to mean 'even'?
Because the sentence is negative (Emme saaneet). When you want to express 'even' or 'also' in a negative context, you must use -kaan or -kään instead of -kin.
What happens to the final -a in mehiläishoitaja before the plural -i?
Nouns ending in -ja or -jä (often indicating a doer or profession) drop their final vowel when the plural marker -i is added. Therefore, the stem mehiläishoitaja becomes mehiläishoitaji- before the rest of the suffixes stack on.
Why is hunajaa in the partitive case?
It is the direct object of a negative sentence (Emme saaneet). In Finnish, if the main verb is negative, the object must always take the partitive case.
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