Breakdown of Keksijä keksi kirjapainon vuonna 1440.
vuosi
year
keksiä
to invent
keksijä
inventor
kirjapaino
printing press
Questions & Answers about Keksijä keksi kirjapainon vuonna 1440.
How exactly is the year 1440 read aloud in this sentence?
Because it immediately follows the word vuonna (in the year), the number is read in its basic, uninflected nominative form: tuhatneljäsataaneljäkymmentä. You do not need to apply any case endings to the number itself.
Why is it so important to include the word vuonna before the year?
If you omit vuonna, you have to express the time by putting the massive compound number itself into the essive case. Because Finnish requires every single part of a compound number to agree in case, this becomes extremely complicated to say on the fly. Using vuonna acts as a grammatical shield, letting you keep the year perfectly simple in the nominative case.
The words keksijä and keksi look very similar. How does the suffix work here?
The noun keksijä (inventor) is derived from the verb root of keksiä (to invent). By adding the agent suffix -jä or -ja to a verb, you create a noun for the person doing the action, exactly like adding -er or -or in English.
Why does the object kirjapainon end in -n instead of being in the partitive case?
The verb keksiä describes an action that yields a total, completed result. Because the inventor completely finished inventing one whole printing press, the singular object takes the total object case, which is the accusative ending in -n.