Breakdown of Opiskelijat muuttivat muoviset pullot lyhdyiksi ja korkit koristeiksi.
ja
and
opiskelija
student
pullo
bottle
muuttaa
to change (something)
koriste
decoration
muovinen
made of plastic
lyhty
lantern
korkki
cap (bottle) / cork
Questions & Answers about Opiskelijat muuttivat muoviset pullot lyhdyiksi ja korkit koristeiksi.
How do we get the form lyhdyiksi from the basic word lyhty?
This is the translative plural, showing what the bottles transformed into. The translative plural ending is -iksi. Adding this ending puts the stem into the weak consonant grade, which changes the t to a d. So, the stem lyhty becomes lyhdy-, and adding the ending gives us lyhdyiksi.
Why doesn't the word koristeiksi undergo any consonant changes like lyhdyiksi did?
The base word is koriste (decoration), which ends in -e. To form the plural stem of a word ending in -e, you just add the plural -i-, giving koristei-. Then you add the translative ending -ksi. Since there are no changeable consonants (k, p, or t) in the final syllable of this stem, no consonant gradation happens.
Why are the bottles and corks in the nominative plural form (pullot, korkit) but the lanterns and decorations are in the translative (lyhdyiksi, koristeiksi)?
The verb muuttaa (to change or transform) expresses an action done to an object to produce a new state. The direct object being changed is put in the accusative case (which in the plural looks exactly like the nominative, ending in -t). The result of the change always takes the translative case (-ksi).
I often mix up muuttaa and muuttua. Why is muuttivat the correct past tense verb here rather than muuttuivat?
Muuttaa is a transitive verb, meaning a subject changes something else (here, the students change the bottles). Muuttua is intransitive, meaning something changes by itself (for example, if the bottles magically transformed into lanterns on their own). Because the students are actively doing the changing, you must use the transitive muuttivat.
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