Breakdown of Itse majesteetin saattue oli pidempi kuin minun autoni.
olla
to be
auto
car
minä
I
itse
self, oneself
pitkä
long, tall
kuin
than / like / as (also in "before …")
majesteetti
majesty
saattue
convoy
Questions & Answers about Itse majesteetin saattue oli pidempi kuin minun autoni.
Why doesn't itse take the genitive ending like majesteetin does?
When itse is used as an intensifying word placed right before a noun to mean 'the X itself' or 'X in person', it does not change its form. It stays exactly as itse, no matter what case the following noun is in.
Could itse refer to the convoy instead of the majesty here?
No, because itse modifies the noun immediately following it. Here it is right in front of majesteetin, so it translates to 'the convoy of the majesty in person'. If you wanted to say 'the majesty's convoy itself', you would put itse right before the convoy: majesteetin itse saattue.
Pidempi means longer, but what is its base form?
The base form is pitkä (long). This is a highly irregular comparative form where the tk consonant combination disappears and the stem changes to pide- before the comparative ending -mpi.
Is the word minun strictly necessary here, since autoni already has the possessive suffix -ni?
No, it is optional. In standard Finnish, the possessive suffix -ni is enough on its own, so you could just say kuin autoni. Keeping minun puts a bit of extra emphasis on the fact that it is your car being compared.
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