Breakdown of Emme voi olla sermin takana neljästään, joten esiinnymme kolmestaan.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (negative verb)
takana
behind
voida
can, to be able to
joten
so, therefore
esiintyä
to perform
kolmestaan
the three of us / the three of them
sermi
screen (room divider)
neljästään
the four of us / the four of them
Questions & Answers about Emme voi olla sermin takana neljästään, joten esiinnymme kolmestaan.
How do the words neljästään and kolmestaan mean "the four of us" and "the three of us"?
The suffix -staan or -stään (dictated by vowel harmony) is added to a numeral to express an exclusive group size acting together. Neljä (four) becomes neljästään (as a group of four) and kolme (three) becomes kolmestaan (as a group of three).
The English translation says "the four of us", but there is no -mme ending on neljästään. Why?
In modern Finnish, these group size adverbs ending in -staan/-stään are typically fixed and do not change to match the grammatical person. Although the suffix originally came from a 3rd-person possessive ending, today it is used universally for "us", "you", and "them". The sentence's verbs (emme, esiinnymme) already make it perfectly clear that the group in question is "us".
What is the base form of esiinnymme, and why does it have a double 'n'?
The base verb is esiintyä (to perform or appear). Adding the -mme ending closes the final syllable, which triggers consonant gradation. This causes the strong consonant combination nt to weaken to nn, changing the stem from esiinty- to esiinny-.
What kind of screen is a sermi, and why is it written as sermin here?
A sermi is a physical room divider or folding privacy screen, rather than a digital screen (which would be a ruutu or näyttö). It takes the genitive -n ending here because it is followed by the postposition takana (behind). In Finnish, most postpositions require the noun preceding them to be in the genitive case.
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