# partitive/nominative in exclamations



## Gavril

Päivää,

If you see something for the first time, and you make an exclamation referring to that something, I think you can use the nominative to refer to it in Finnish:

_Käärme! _"A snake!"

However, "snake" is a singular, countable item. In the case of plurals or uncountable things, would you use the partitive or the nominative?

For example,

"Look, pigeons! Can I have some of your bread to feed them with?"
_Kas, puluja/pulut. Saisinko sinulta leipää, jota syöttää niille?
_
"Sewer water in the street! I wonder if a pipe burst?"
_Jätevettä/jätevesi kadulla! Katkesiköhän viemäriputki?
_
Kiitos


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## Grumpy Old Man

The partitive is correct in both your examples.  _Katkesik*o*h*a*n..._  A Finn might also say: _Onkohan viemäriputki katkennut?_


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## Gavril

Grumpy Old Man said:


> The partitive is correct in both your examples.  _Katkesik*o*h*a*n..._  A Finn might also say: _Onkohan viemäriputki katkennut?_



Thanks, all I can guess is that I was confusing (in terms of pronunciation) _katketa_ with _kätkeä_.


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## Grumpy Old Man

Gavril said:


> Thanks, all I can guess is that I was confusing (in terms of pronunciation) _katketa_ with _kätkeä_.


These things happen.  I just wrote _illatiivi*ä*_ or something in another thread.  The weirdest thing is that I have typed an a or an o instead of ä or ö on my own computer.  I spend a few weeks abroad every year and as computers don't have the Scandinavian alphabet in those countries, using a and o is more or less a must.  How I have managed to "import" that usage to Finland is beyond me, though.


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## Gavril

Recently, someone posted a picture of several differently-colored eggs on Instagram, and a commenter posted "Upeat värit!" ("Splendid colors!") in response.

Why do you suppose the _t_-plural (_upea*t* väri*t*_) was used here, rather than the partitive plural?

Perhaps the commenter was thinking of the complete sentence "Munilla on upeat värit" (= "The eggs have splendid colors", "The eggs' colors are splendid"), in which case the t-plural does seem more accurate than the partitive.


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## hui

Gavril said:


> Perhaps the commenter was thinking of the complete sentence "Munilla on upeat värit" (= "The eggs have splendid colors", "The eggs' colors are splendid"), in which case the t-plural does seem more accurate than the partitive.


The complete sentence is simply: "Värit ovat upeat" = "The colors are splendid."

"Upeita värejä." [= "Värit ovat upeita."] = "There are splendid colors."


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## Gavril

Kiitos vielä kerran


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