In English, there is a set word order: Subject, Verb, Object.
The person who does something is first, then comes the verb, then after the verb there is the thing or person that things are being done to.
For example:
The dog eats the fish.
Who is the eater, the one who is eating? That's the dog, it's before the verb. This is the subject.
Who is getting eaten, the one who is being eaten? That's the fish, it's after the verb. This is the object.
In Finnish, there is no set word order, which could lead to confusion about who is the one doing the eating and who is the one being eaten. This is why the object, the one being eaten, is marked with the partitive ending.
This is the same ending that we have seen before as well:
when speaking languages, you add -a or -ä to the end of the language. (En puhu englantia)
when counting things, you add -a or -ä to the thing being counted. (Kolme koiraa)
The partitive ending -a or -ä is added to things being counted.
It is also added to the object of the verb.
The dog eats the fish.
Koira syö kalaa.
The partitive -a makes it clear that it is the fish which is being eaten, even if we change the word order: The word order is usually changed to emphasize different words.
Koira kalaa syö. The dog eats fish. (The dog, it's the fish it eats.)
Kalaa koira syö. The dog eats fish. (It's the fish, that the dog eats.)
So the principle is this: the word that comes after the verb in the English sentence is the object.
In Finnish, this word gets the partitive ending -a or -ä,
Let's look at some other examples:
Markus kuulee musiikkia. Markus hears music.
Which one is the one being heard, the word after the verb in English? "Music". This is the object, so it gets the object ending: the partitive -a or -ä.
Pekka juo maitoa. Pekka is drinking milk.
Which one is the one being drunk, the word after the verb in English? "Milk". This is the object, so it gets the object ending: the partitive -a or -ä.
Even if we change the word order to emphasize, the meaning doesn't change:
Maitoa Pekka juo. Pekka is drinking milk. (It's milk that Pekka is drinking)
Anna-Liisa kirjoittaa kirjaa. Anna-Liisa is writing a book.
Which one is the one being drunk, the word after the verb in English? "Book". This is the object, so it gets the object ending: the partitive -a or -ä.
Even if we change the word order to change the emphasis, the meaning doesn't change:
Kirjaa kirjoittaa Anna-Liisa. Anna-Liisa is writing a book. (The book is being written by Anna-Liisa.)
Me leivomme leipää. We bake bread.
Which one is the one being baked, the word after the verb in English? "Bread". This is the object, so it gets the object ending: the partitive -a or -ä.
Even if we change the word order to change the emphasis, the meaning doesn't change:
Leivomme me leipää. We do bake bread.
The general rule with words that end in two vowels, is that a T is added to interrupt the vowels.
Maa maata
puu puuta
suu suuta
tie tietä
yö yötä
Toivotan hyvää yötä. I wish a good night.
The next lesson:
