Breakdown of Tämä on melko tavallinen suomalainen talo.
tämä
this
olla
to be
talo
house
suomalainen
Finnish / Finn
melko
quite, fairly
tavallinen
ordinary, usual
Questions & Answers about Tämä on melko tavallinen suomalainen talo.
Why does this sentence use melko instead of the -hko / -hkö suffix taught in this lesson?
Melko is an adverb meaning "fairly" or "quite," and it acts as a very common alternative to the -hko / -hkö suffix. You could absolutely replace melko tavallinen with tavallisehko. Using melko as a separate word is sometimes preferred because it avoids creating very long words, especially with adjectives that already contain suffixes like -llinen.
If I wanted to use the suffix here, how exactly would I form it for the word tavallinen?
You attach the -hko / -hkö suffix to the inflectional stem of the adjective. For adjectives ending in -nen, the stem replaces -nen with -se-. Therefore, the stem of tavallinen is tavallise-. Add the suffix to get tavallisehko (fairly ordinary). Since the word contains back vowels (a, o, u), you use the back-vowel version -hko.
Does the adjective tavallinen come from a shorter root word?
Yes, it is derived from the noun tapa, which means "habit," "custom," or "way." The suffix -llinen is a very common tool for turning nouns into adjectives, so tapa becomes tavallinen (customary or ordinary). Notice that consonant gradation applies here, changing the strong p in tapa to a weak v in the stem.
Why doesn't the word melko change if the sentence is put into a different case?
Melko is an adverb of degree, and like most adverbs of degree in Finnish (such as aika or tosi), it does not inflect. If you were to put this sentence into the partitive case, for example "This is not a fairly ordinary Finnish house" (Tämä ei ole melko tavallista suomalaista taloa), the word melko remains exactly the same while the adjectives and noun take the partitive endings.
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