IV. When the passive form of the verb is used, the subject (or more properly object) is put in the nominative, if it is total. Hän saatetaan kotia, he is conducted home (vide p. [182]).
V. The nominative is used as the vocative. Oi ukko ylijumala! Weli kulta, weikkoseni, kaunis kasvinkumppalini!
VI. The nominative absolute is frequently used. Kal. xvi. 192-3. Tuonen hattu hartioilla, Manan kintahat käessä, the hat of death on thy head, and the gloves of death on thy hands. Ei vahinko tule kello kaulassa, misfortune does not come with a bell round his neck. Harvoin on se mies piippu poissa suusta, this man is rarely without a pipe in his mouth. Hän makaa ulkona pää paljaana, he sleeps out of doors with his head bare.
The Partitive Case.
The original meaning of this case seems to have been motion from a place, and traces of this signification are found in the forms kotoa, ulkoa, kaukaa, takaa, tyköä, and luota. Tulla ulkoa, to come from out of doors; nähdä kaukaa, to see from far. The partitive is also apparently used locally in such expressions as tulkaa tätä tietä, come this way; minä käyn tietä, I go by the road; he kulkivat matkaansa, they went on their way. Perhaps, however, these might be explained by supposing that the intransitive verbs tulla, käydä, etc. take a cognate object. The use of the partitive of the participle passive (p. [198]) to denote ‘after’ is noticeable.
Hence the case passes not unnaturally to mean what is taken from, or forms part of a thing.
I. A substantive preceded by words which express a quantity or measure is put in the partitive. Joukko ihmisiä, a crowd of men; naula lihaa, a pound of meat; paljo rahaa, much money; vähä voita, a little butter.
Similarly a cardinal number, if it is the subject of a sentence, is followed by the partitive sing. of the word which it qualifies. Kolme poikaa, three boys; seitsemän veljeä, seven brothers. In the same way we have, kaksi kymmentä, two tens or twenty. But if the word qualified by the numeral would not be in the nominative in ordinary European languages, the two agree in case (vide p. [172]).
II. The word expressing quantity is omitted and the partitive stands alone as the subject of the sentence. This construction can often, though not always, be rendered by the word ‘some’ in English, or by ‘de’ with the article in French. Leipää on pöydällä, there is some bread on the table (il y a du pain sur la table). It is to be noticed that in this construction the verb of which the partitive is the subject must be intransitive, and is always in the singular, though the subject should be in the plural. Onko teillä vaatteita? have you any clothes?