Breakdown of Minun pitää ohentaa paksuja latvoja.
minun
my, mine
paksu
thick
pitää
must / have to
latva
end (top of a tree)
Questions & Answers about Minun pitää ohentaa paksuja latvoja.
How is the verb ohentaa formed, and what adjective does it come from?
It is derived from the adjective ohut (thin). To create an active, transitive verb meaning to make something thin, the suffix -ntaa is added to the adjective's inflectional stem, which is ohe-, resulting in ohentaa.
If ohentaa means to make thinner, how would I use the same grammar rule to say to make thicker using the adjective paksu?
You apply the exact same -ntaa suffix to the stem of paksu (thick). Because the stem is simply paksu-, the resulting verb is paksuntaa (to make thicker).
Sentences with minun pitää often drop the object's genitive ending. Why is paksuja latvoja in the partitive case here?
While necessity verbs like pitää force a total object into the nominative case instead of the genitive, the partitive case overrides this rule. Because the action applies to an indefinite plural amount of thick ends, the object must remain in the partitive plural regardless of the necessity verb.
What exactly does the word latvoja refer to in a typical real-life context?
Latva literally means the top, tip, or end of something that grows. While it often refers to the top of a tree, in everyday Finnish it is the standard word for the ends of your hair. This sentence would most likely be spoken by a hairdresser!