Breakdown of Ensinnäkin tämä suunnitelma on liian kallis.
tämä
this
olla
to be
kallis
expensive
suunnitelma
plan
liian
too (excessively)
ensinnäkin
firstly (to begin with)
Questions & Answers about Ensinnäkin tämä suunnitelma on liian kallis.
Ensinnäkin means 'firstly', but why does it end with the clitic -kin?
If 'firstly' is ensinnäkin, are 'secondly' and 'thirdly' formed the same way?
No, they are formed differently. While 'firstly' uses an old locative ending plus -kin (ensinnäkin), the subsequent numbers in a list use the translative case: toiseksi (secondly) and kolmanneksi (thirdly).
The word suunnitelma (plan) looks like it comes from a verb. How is it formed?
It is derived from the verb suunnitella (to plan). The suffix -elma or -lma is used to create a noun that represents the result of a verb's action. A plan is the result of planning. Other common examples are ohjelma (program) from ohjata (to direct) and kokoelma (collection) from koota (to collect).
Why is the adjective kallis in the nominative case here, rather than the partitive kallista?
In Finnish, a predicative adjective describing an uncountable mass noun (like time or water) takes the partitive case. However, suunnitelma is a countable noun (you can have one plan or two plans). For singular countable nouns, the adjective must be in the nominative case, which is why we use kallis.
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