Breakdown of Ostin kaupasta lisää saippuaa ja pesuainetta, koska molemmat loppuivat kesken.
Questions & Answers about Ostin kaupasta lisää saippuaa ja pesuainetta, koska molemmat loppuivat kesken.
Kaupasta is the elative case, meaning out of/from inside a place. With shopping, Finnish often expresses “from a store” as from inside the store:
- ostaa kaupasta = to buy (something) from a shop
Compare: - kauppaan (illative) = into the shop (I went into the shop)
- kaupassa (inessive) = in the shop (I was in the shop)
- kaupasta (elative) = out of/from the shop (I bought from the shop)
Finnish verb endings already show the person, so the pronoun is often omitted unless you want emphasis or contrast.
- Ostin already means I bought.
You might add minä if you’re stressing I (not someone else): Minä ostin...
Lisää means more / additional. In this sentence it functions like an adverb/determiner meaning some more:
- Ostin ... lisää saippuaa = I bought more soap
It commonly stays in this basic form (it’s historically a partitive form), especially in everyday usage like this.
They are in the partitive because they refer to an uncountable substance or an unspecified amount: (some) soap and (some) detergent.
Finnish typically uses partitive for:
- substances/mass nouns: vettä, maitoa, saippuaa
- indefinite amounts: ostin omenoita (some apples)
Sometimes, yes, depending on meaning. With a countable, complete amount, Finnish can use the “total object” (often genitive/accusative). For example:
- Ostin saippuan. = I bought the soap bar / the (specific) soap (a whole item, definite)
But saippuaa strongly suggests some soap (not a specific whole unit), which fits the context.
That’s the partitive singular of pesuaine. The stem is pesuaine-, and Finnish forms the partitive as:
- pesuaine + tta → pesuainetta
The double vowel sequence remains: aine → ainetta.
Koska means because and introduces a reason clause. Finnish uses a comma before subordinate clauses introduced by words like koska:
- main clause: Ostin...
- reason clause: koska molemmat loppuivat kesken
So the comma is standard Finnish punctuation here.
Molemmat means both, and it specifically refers to the two items mentioned (saippuaa and pesuainetta). Ne just means they/those and wouldn’t explicitly say “both.”
- koska ne loppuivat = because they ran out (could be any number)
- koska molemmat loppuivat = because both ran out (exactly the two)
Because the subject molemmat is plural (“both”), so the verb agrees in number:
- molemmat loppuivat = both ran out
The base verb is loppua (to run out/end), and loppuivat is past tense, 3rd person plural.
Kesken adds the nuance in the middle / before finishing, like “we ran out mid-way.” In everyday Finnish, loppua kesken is a very common fixed-like expression meaning to run out (unexpectedly / before you were done).
So loppuivat kesken feels like we ran out (while using them), not just “they ended” in an abstract sense.
Somewhat, but this order is very natural: verb → place → objects → reason. Finnish can move parts for emphasis, but the default “neutral” flow is common in narration:
- Ostin kaupasta lisää saippuaa ja pesuainetta...
If you front something, it changes focus, e.g. Kaupasta ostin... emphasizes the store.
That’s just how the partitive ending attaches: saippua + a → saippuaa. Finnish often creates double vowels when adding endings:
- puu → puuta (not double)
- saippua → saippuaa (double a happens because the word already ends in -a)