Oppilas sovittaa uusia kenkiä urheilutunnille.

The pupil tries on new shoes for the sports class.

Breakdown of Oppilas sovittaa uusia kenkiä urheilutunnille.

• uusi: new
• -lle: to
• sovittaa: to try on
• kenkä: the shoe
• oppilas: the pupil
• urheilutunti: the sports class

Questions & Answers about Oppilas sovittaa uusia kenkiä urheilutunnille.

Why is uusia kenkiä in the partitive case instead of the nominative case?

Because the verb sovittaa (to try on, to fit) normally takes its object in the partitive when the action is incomplete or the object is viewed as an indefinite amount. Here the student isn’t “fully using” the shoes but merely trying them on, so you say uusia kenkiä (partitive plural of uudet kengät) rather than uudet kengät (nominative plural).

What does urheilutunnille mean, and why is it in the allative case (-lle)?

urheilutunti means sports lesson or gym class. The suffix -lle marks the allative case, which answers the question mihin? (“to where?”). It indicates movement or direction to the gym class, or purpose for the gym class (i.e. “trying on shoes for gym class”).

Why are there no articles like “the” or “a” in this sentence?

Finnish doesn’t have definite or indefinite articles. You simply use the noun in its base form, and context tells you whether it’s “a,” “the,” or even “some.” Here oppilas can mean “a student” or “the student” depending on what you already know from the context.

What’s the difference between sovittaa and kokeilla when you talk about trying on clothes or shoes?

• sovittaa focuses on checking the fit or size (“to fit on oneself” or “to make something fit”).
• kokeilla is more general (“to try,” “to test”); you can try on clothes, try out a machine, try a recipe, etc.
  In the context of shoes, sovittaa emphasizes ensuring they fit properly.

How is the verb sovittaa conjugated here, and how do we know it’s third person singular?

• The infinitive is sovittaa.
• Present tense stem: sovitta-.
• Third person singular ending for a Type I verb is -a.
  Put together: sovittaa = “he/she/it tries on (fits).”
  We know it’s singular because the form sovittaa ends in -a, whereas the plural would be sovittavat (they try on).

Why does sovittaa have a double t in the middle?

Due to Finnish consonant gradation and the verb class. The strong grade of the root is tt, and in the present tense you keep that strong grade: sovi- + tta + a → sovittaa.

Is Finnish word order fixed? Could you move urheilutunnille to the front of the sentence?

Finnish has fairly free word order because grammatical roles are shown by case endings, not position. The default is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), but you can front urheilutunnille for emphasis:
• Urheilutunnille oppilas sovittaa uusia kenkiä.
That still means the same thing, but it highlights the purpose/destination first.

How do you form the partitive plural of kengät to get kenkiä?

1. Start with the nominative plural kengät.
2. Remove the plural marker -t, leaving the stem kengä- (note the vowel change).
3. Add the partitive plural marker -i- plus -a, giving keng i ä.
   Result: kenkiä = “(some) shoes” in partitive plural.

What does oppilas mean, and how can you tell it’s singular here?

oppilas means student. You can tell it’s singular because the verb sovittaa is in third person singular (-a ending). If the subject were plural (oppilaat), the verb would be sovittavat (third person plural).