Breakdown of Ystävällinen hymy auttaa todella paljon.
todella
really
paljon
a lot
auttaa
to help
ystävällinen
friendly
hymy
the smile
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Questions & Answers about Ystävällinen hymy auttaa todella paljon.
What is the role and case of ystävällinen hymy in this sentence?
Ystävällinen hymy is the subject. In Finnish, subjects are in the nominative case, so both ystävällinen (adjective) and hymy (noun) appear in the nominative singular form.
How is the adjective ystävällinen formed, and what does it mean?
Ystävällinen derives from the noun ystävä (friend) plus the adjective-forming suffix -llinen. Together they give ystävällinen, meaning friendly. This pattern shows up often in Finnish (e.g. suola → suolainen “salty”, onni → onnellinen “happy”).
Why isn’t hymy inflected here (for example as hymyä)?
Since hymy is the subject in singular form, it stays in the nominative (hymy). Partitive forms like hymyä would be used for partitive objects or quantities, not for a simple nominative subject.
How do you pronounce ystävällinen hymy, and where is the stress?
Finnish always stresses the first syllable of each word. So you say UHS-tä-väLLI-nen HUmy. The vowel y is pronounced like the German ü or the French u in lune. Each letter largely corresponds to one sound.
What type of verb is auttaa, and why is it written as auttaa here?
Auttaa is a type I verb (infinitive ending in -aa/-ää). In the present tense, third person singular, the infinitive stem auta- takes the ending -aa, doubling the t: auttaa (“he/she/it helps”).
Why is there no object after auttaa? Isn’t auttaa transitive?
Normally auttaa takes a direct object in the partitive (e.g. auttaa minua – helps me). Here the object is omitted because it’s understood from context (“a friendly smile really helps”). Finnish frequently drops pronouns or objects when they are clear.
What part of speech is todella, and why isn’t it todellisesti?
Todella is an adverb meaning really or indeed. It modifies the adverb paljon. You could use todellisesti, which is a more formal adverbial form of todellinen (“realistic”), but in everyday speech todella is the usual way to say really.
What is the function of paljon, and does it take a case ending?
Here paljon is an adverb meaning a lot. Adverbs do not take case endings in Finnish. If paljon quantified a noun (“much time”), you would say paljon aikaa with aikaa in the partitive. But when modifying a verb, it stays simply paljon.