Breakdown of Hehkulamppu oli kaupallinen menestys vuonna 1880.
olla
to be
vuosi
year
menestys
success
hehkulamppu
light bulb
kaupallinen
commercial
Questions & Answers about Hehkulamppu oli kaupallinen menestys vuonna 1880.
Why doesn't the year 1880 inflect into the essive case like the word vuonna does?
When you use the word vuonna (in the year), it already carries the essive case ending -na to express when something happened. The grammatical rule is that the actual number following vuonna stays entirely in its basic dictionary form (the nominative case).
How exactly do I read "1880" out loud in this sentence?
Because it stays in the uninflected nominative case after vuonna, you read it simply as tuhat kahdeksansataa kahdeksankymmentä. You don't have to worry about adding the essive -na to any of the numbers!
Why is kaupallinen menestys in the nominative case instead of the partitive?
This is a basic "A is B" predicative sentence. Because the subject (hehkulamppu) is a singular, countable noun, the predicative (kaupallinen menestys) also takes the nominative case. If the subject were an uncountable mass noun (like water or coffee), the predicative would take the partitive.
The word kaupallinen (commercial) looks related to kauppa (shop/trade). How does that suffix work?
The suffix -llinen is frequently used to turn a noun into an adjective meaning "pertaining to" or "having the quality of" that noun. So, kauppa (trade/commerce) becomes kaupallinen (commercial).
What verb does the noun menestys (success) come from?
It comes from the verb menestyä, which means "to succeed" or "to do well". Adding the -s suffix (which often appears as -ys or -us depending on vowel harmony) is a common way to turn a verb into a noun that describes the result of that action.
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