Breakdown of Pisarassa alkoholia on paljon energiaa.
olla
to be
paljon
a lot
energia
energy
pisara
the drop
alkoholi
the alcohol
Questions & Answers about Pisarassa alkoholia on paljon energiaa.
Why is alkoholia in the partitive case while pisarassa is in the inessive case? Shouldn't modifiers agree with their head noun?
This is the core of the measure and container rule. When a noun acts as a measure or container (like pisara, a drop), the substance inside it (alkoholi) stays in the partitive case (alkoholia) no matter what case the container is in. So, while the drop gets the 'in' ending (pisarassa), the alcohol remains uninflected in the partitive.
Why does the sentence start with the location (pisarassa alkoholia) instead of the subject?
This is a classic existential sentence, which expresses that something exists somewhere. In Finnish, these almost always start with the location (pisarassa alkoholia), followed by the verb (on), and end with the thing that exists (paljon energiaa).
Could I use the genitive here and say alkoholin pisarassa?
There are two words in the partitive here: alkoholia and energiaa. Are they in the partitive for the same reason?
No, they are doing completely different jobs! Alkoholia is a partitive attribute expressing the substance measured by the container (pisarassa). Energiaa, on the other hand, is in the partitive because it directly follows the quantifier paljon (a lot), which always forces the following noun into the partitive case.
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