Breakdown of Mehiläiset pörräävät nyt mehiläistarhoissanikin.
nyt
now
mehiläinen
bee
mehiläistarha
the apiary
pörrätä
to buzz
Questions & Answers about Mehiläiset pörräävät nyt mehiläistarhoissanikin.
Can you break down all the suffixes attached to mehiläistarhoissanikin?
Absolutely! This word perfectly demonstrates the strict order of Finnish suffixes: Stem + Plural + Case + Possessive + Enclitic. The base is the compound word mehiläistarha (apiary). We add the plural marker -i- (causing the a to become o: -tarhoi-), then the inessive case -ssa- (in), then the first-person singular possessive suffix -ni- (my), and finally the enclitic particle -kin (also/too).
Why does the final a in tarha change to an o before the plural -i- in mehiläistarhoissanikin?
This is a common vowel change rule that is easy to forget. For two-syllable words (or the final root of a compound word) ending in -a, if the first vowel of that word is a, e, or i, the final a turns into an o when you add the plural -i-. Since the base word here is tarha, the final a becomes an o, resulting in tarhoissa.
Why does the word for bee (mehiläinen) look like mehiläis- in the compound word mehiläistarhoissanikin?
When a noun ends in -nen, we use its combining stem ending in -s to form compound words. So, mehiläinen (bee) plus tarha (yard or enclosure) becomes mehiläistarha (apiary).
Pörräävät looks like it has a lot of extra vowels compared to its dictionary form pörrätä. Why is that?
Pörrätä (to buzz) is a Type 4 verb. To find the present stem of a Type 4 verb, you drop the infinitive ending -tä and add an -ä to the root, giving you the stem pörrää-. Then you add the third-person plural ending -vät to get pörräävät (they buzz).
Why is the enclitic particle -kin attached to the end of mehiläistarhoissanikin instead of another word in the sentence?
The particle -kin (also/too) attaches to the specific word that brings new, additional information. By attaching it to your apiaries, the speaker emphasizes that the buzzing isn't just happening generally or somewhere else, it is also happening specifically in your apiaries.
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