Questions & Answers about Pidän eniten kahvista.
Why is kahvista in this form, and what case is it?
Kahvista is in the elative case (the “out of / from” case), which typically has the ending -sta / -stä.
With the verb pitää in the sense of “to like”, Finnish uses the pattern:
- pitää + elative (mistä?)
- Pidän kahvista. = I like coffee. (literally: I like from coffee.)
So you must say kahvista, not kahvi or kahvia, after pidän when it means to like.
Formally:
- kahvi (nominative, dictionary form)
- stem: kahvi-
- elative: kahvi
- sta → kahvista
Why is there no minä in Pidän eniten kahvista?
Finnish usually drops personal pronouns when the verb ending already shows the person.
- pidän already means “I like”:
- minä pidän = I like
- sinä pidät = you (sg) like
- hän pitää = he/she likes
So Pidän eniten kahvista naturally means “I like coffee the most”; the minä is understood from -n at the end of pidän.
You can add the pronoun for emphasis or clarity:
- =