Tuesday, October 29, 2019

A super interesting plural partitive detail

Here's something cool about the plural partitive, or the plural stems in general, but let's not go too deep.

First, the basic words and their meanings:

  • koira = a dog
  • juna = a train
  • kissa = a cat
  • kala = a fish
  • vessa = a bathroom, a toilet

All there words have two syllables and an a in the end. However, the plural partitive is different. MIKSI?

  • koira > koiria
  • juna > junia
  • kissa > kissoja 
  • kala > kaloja
  • vessa > vessoja



The answer is in the first vowel of the word!


If the first vowel is O or U, the ending is IA:


  • koira > koiria
  • juna > junia

also

  • muna (an egg)  > munia 
  • kukka (a flower) > kukkia
  • turha (pointless, useless) > turhia
  • sota (a war) > sotia
  • poika (a boy) > poikia

If the first vowel is A, E or I, the ending is OJA:


  • kissa > kissoja 
  • kala > kaloja
  • vessa > vessoja

also

  • kana (a chicken)  > kanoja
  • sana (a word) > sanoja
  • hella (a stove) > helloja
  • vika (a fault) > vikoja
  • sika (a pig) > sikoja
If you have Finnish friends, ask if they know about this. :)


Lue lisää: 



Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it. 
Kiitos, kun luit! Jos pidit postauksesta, voit jakaa sen eteenpäin.

– Hanna 

4 comments:

  1. Tommy QuistOctober 29, 2019 at 3:19 PM

    Is this symmetrical with respects to vowel harmony? That is to say, when the word ends in ä, do inital ö and y lead to iä and initial ä to öjä?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Random Finnish Lesson / Hanna MännikkölahtiOctober 29, 2019 at 9:37 PM

    No, but I like the way you think.:) In two-syllable words ending with ä, the plural partitive is -iä.

    päivä (a day) --> päiviä
    ännä (a letter n) --> änniä
    yskä (a cough) --> yskiä
    pöljä (a silly person --> pöljiä
    kesä (a summer) --> kesiä
    reikä (a hole) --> reikiä
    silmä (an eye) --> silmiä

    ReplyDelete
  3. Olli VäisäläNovember 3, 2019 at 5:48 PM

    Poikkeus: suola -> suoloja (ei suolia:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownAugust 23, 2021 at 11:19 AM

    How about ambulance?

    ReplyDelete