Breakdown of Kahvin jälkimaku on entistä makeampi, mutta hapokkuus puuttuu.
olla
to be
mutta
but
kahvi
coffee
makea
sweet
puuttua
to be missing
entinen
former
hapokkuus
acidity
jälkimaku
aftertaste
Questions & Answers about Kahvin jälkimaku on entistä makeampi, mutta hapokkuus puuttuu.
Why is entistä used here to mean "than before", and why is it in the partitive case?
Entistä is the partitive form of the adjective entinen (former, previous). In Finnish, you can express comparisons by putting the thing being compared to in the partitive case right before the comparative adjective, instead of using kuin (than). So, entistä makeampi literally means "sweeter than the former".
Could I say makeampi kuin ennen instead of entistä makeampi?
Yes, makeampi kuin ennen is perfectly correct and means exactly the same thing. However, using entistä plus a comparative adjective is a very common, native-sounding construction to express "more than before" in Finnish.
How is the noun hapokkuus (acidity) formed?
It is formed by adding the suffix -uus to the adjective hapokas (acidic, tangy). This suffix turns adjectives into abstract nouns, similar to "-ity" or "-ness" in English. Notice how the stem changes: the -kas ending becomes -kku- before adding the suffix, making hapokkuus.
Doesn't the verb puuttua usually require a location ending in -sta or -stä?
It often does when you want to specify where something is missing from (for example, Kahvista puuttuu sokeri - "Sugar is missing from the coffee"). However, in this sentence, it is used on its own to simply state that the acidity is entirely absent without pointing to a specific location.
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