Breakdown of Monet meistä ovat täällä alumneina, mutta aiemmin olimme vaihto-opiskelijoina.
olla
to be
mutta
but
me
we
täällä
here
moni
many (a)
aiemmin
earlier, previously
alumni
alumnus
vaihto-opiskelija
exchange student
Questions & Answers about Monet meistä ovat täällä alumneina, mutta aiemmin olimme vaihto-opiskelijoina.
Why does the sentence use the essive plural forms alumneina and vaihto-opiskelijoina instead of just nominative plural?
In Finnish, the essive case (ending in -na or -nä) is used to express a temporary state, a position, or a role. While in English you simply say "we are alumni," Finnish uses the essive to emphasize that you are here in the capacity or in the role of alumni and exchange students.
How is the plural essive alumneina formed from the base word alumni?
For many words ending in -i, the final -i changes to an -e- before you add the plural marker -i-. So, the base word alumni becomes the stem alumne-. Then you add the plural -i- and the essive ending -na, resulting in alumneina.
What happens to the end of vaihto-opiskelija to make the plural form vaihto-opiskelijoina?
Words ending in -ija or -ijä (which usually denote a person doing an action) change their final -a or -ä to an -o- or -ö- before the plural -i- is attached. Therefore, the stem of opiskelija becomes opiskelijo-, to which we add the plural -i- and the essive -na, giving us opiskelijoina.
Why is the nominative monet meistä used here rather than a partitive form like monia meistä?
When you want to say "many of us" as the active subject of the sentence, you use the nominative plural monet followed by the elative case meistä (meaning "out of us"). You would only use the partitive monia if it were the object of the sentence, such as in Näen monia meistä (I see many of us).
What kind of word is aiemmin and where does it come from?
Aiemmin is a comparative adverb meaning "earlier." It is a very common, slightly shorter variant of the word aikaisemmin. Both are completely interchangeable and come from the root word related to time, aika.
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