Hitting a Creative Dead End
When writer's block strikes or a project stalls, you might feel a range of frustrating emotions. In Finnish, adjectives expressing fatigue, frustration, or emotional saturation—like being tired, fed up, or dissatisfied—require specific grammatical rules for the thing you are tired of.
Instead of using a direct equivalent to the English words "of" or "with", Finnish requires you to use the illative case (the "into" case) for the source of your frustration.
Common adjectives in this category include:
- väsynyt (tired)
- kyllästynyt (fed up)
- turhautunut (frustrated)
- tyytymätön (dissatisfied)
- leipääntynyt (jaded)
When you are tired of or frustrated with a noun, you put that noun into the illative case (often ending in a doubled vowel + -n, or -hin / -siin).
| Even the writer is fed up with brainstorming. | Jopa kirjailija on kyllästynyt ideointiin. |
| We are frustrated with this dead end. | Olemme turhautuneita tähän umpikujaan. |
| The manuscript stalls, and I am dissatisfied with the plot. | Käsikirjoitus takkuilee, ja olen tyytymätön juoneen. |
Tired of Doing Something
If you are tired of doing an action, the verb representing that action must be in the third infinitive illative form.
To create this form, take the strong vowel stem of the verb and add the suffix -maan or -mään:
- hioa (to polish) → hiomaan
- kirjoittaa (to write) → kirjoittamaan
- ajatella (to think) → ajattelemaan
| I am so tired of polishing this sentence that I just want to sleep. | Olen niin väsynyt hiomaan tätä lausetta, että haluan vain nukkua. |
| Even the teacher is frustrated with polishing the same text. | Jopa opettaja on turhautunut hiomaan samaa tekstiä. |
| Are you also jaded with writing this novel? | Oletko sinäkin leipääntynyt kirjoittamaan tätä romaania? |