Some things which I found strange straight from the beginning was the usage of numbers (numerals).
In this article, I will start writing about this (this will go on for a couple of next articles, too). In the Finnish language numbers are used with nouns in singular, numbers can have plural forms (as they inflect as any other nominal: nouns, adjective, pronouns), while numeral "one" has some special usage.
Numbers are used with singular form of nouns
In Finnish, we say "Minulla on kaksi autoa" meaning "I have two cars". The word "autoa" is in singular, inflected in the case called "partitive". The partitive is a case expressing incomplete or undefined quantities, parts. In the example, the possible explanation is that this type of sentence belongs to those which obey special rules (omistuslause, tilalause - posessive, existential sentences) - this will be discussed in another article. But how about this then: "Ostin kaski kirjaa" - "I bought two books."?
Also, nouns preceded by numbers (expressing the subject of the sentence) are generally used with the verb in the singular form: "Kaksi lasta juoksee kadulla" (again, this can be included in those special type of sentences) meaning "Two children are running on the street". In English (and many other languages) we use "children" and "are running" - the plural forms, while in Finnish we use the singular forms "lasta" and " juoksee". A possible explanation for this usage would be that two children are refered to as an undefined or unidentified group or set of entities.
There is, however, an exception (which many foreigners would expect more naturaly to be "the rule" rather than "the exception"): when the number expressed refers to specific entities it is used with the verb in the plural form (please note that, nevertheless, the noun stays in singular partitive). So we say "Nuo kaksi autoa ovat uusia" - "Those two cars are new" and "Minun kaksi koiraani ovat kotona" - "My two dogs are at home"
[to be continued . . .]
Monday, March 20, 2006
Numbers and Quantities
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2 comments:
So we say "Nuo kaksi autoa ovat uusia" - "Those two cars are new" and "Minun kaksi koiraani ovat kotona" - "My two dogs are at home"
But consider "autot ovat uudet" - The cars are new, all in the plural, but in the nominative case. It's not the number per se, which determines the number of the subject but that Finnish calls for the partitive case after numbers. The translation for the partitive should go something like "two of the class of dog" in this case. 'Class of', is singular, but becomes impossibly cumbersome in translations so is hidden away not to be seen or well understood.
Also I would SAY, "mun kaks koiraa on kotona" - my two of dog is at home. Grammatically questionable but very much part of the spoken language. There's a few other... oops, people do it in English too, that is mismatch numbers in verbs and subjects.
The partitive case is very common in Finnish. It may actually be the most used objective case. It even determines the tense of imperfect verbs to some extent.
Consider;
Join vettä.
Join (imperfect, 1sg.) I was drinking, vettä (partitive) of the water. Some of the water remains, so the action is not totally complete. Hence 'was drinking', the true imperfect tense makes the best sense as a translation into English.
Join veden.
Here veden is in the accusative case indicating that all the water (from the glass or container) is gone. So the best translation would be "I drank the water", which we would describe a completed action and therefore require the perfect tense in many languages.
Peter P
I did not quite understand what you meant by "It's not the number per se, which determines the number of the subject".
Good comments about partitive usage, but I will tackle that issue later, in another article. In this article I strictly eanted to point out the usage of singular with Finnish numbers.
The same for this "autot ovat uudet" - related to usage of plural accusative versus plural partitive, also tackled later.
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