Breakdown of Minä vien tämän vanhan kengän roskakoriin.
tämä
this
minä
I
vanha
old
viedä
to take (away, somewhere) / to take (time), require
kenkä
the shoe
roskakori
the trash can
Questions & Answers about Minä vien tämän vanhan kengän roskakoriin.
How does roskakoriin mean "to the trash can"?
It uses the illative case, which tells us where something is going. The basic word is roskakori (trash can). To say "into the trash can," we double the last vowel (i) and add -n, giving us roskakoriin. This ending directly answers the question word mihin (where to).
Why do tämän, vanhan, and kengän all end in -n here?
They make up the object of the sentence—the specific thing you are taking. In Finnish, full objects usually take the -n ending. Notice how the descriptive words (tämä meaning "this" and vanha meaning "old") must perfectly match the -n ending of the noun they describe.
What happened to the "k" in the word kenkä (shoe) when it became kengän?
It went through consonant gradation, a common spelling change in Finnish. When you add a "closed" ending like -n, the strong nk combination in the basic word kenkä softens into a weak ng in kengän.
Does the verb vien mean "to take" or "to bring"?
It means "to take" (moving something away from the speaker). The dictionary form is viedä. If you were bringing the shoe towards the speaker instead, you would use a different verb: tuoda (to bring).
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