Breakdown of Seuraavana iltapäivänä koira menee metsään leikkimään.
koira
dog
metsä
forest
mennä
to go
iltapäivä
the afternoon
leikkiä
to play (children, with toys)
seuraava
next
Questions & Answers about Seuraavana iltapäivänä koira menee metsään leikkimään.
Why is "to play" translated as leikkimään instead of its basic form leikkiä?
In Finnish, when you go somewhere to do something, the action verb takes the third infinitive illative ending -maan or -mään. Because the dog goes (menee) to do the action, we use the stem leikki- plus -mään.
Why does leikkimään end in -mään rather than -maan?
This is due to vowel harmony. Because the verb leikkiä only contains the vowels e and i, it requires front vowel endings. Therefore, it takes -mään with an ä instead of an a.
Why do the words for "following afternoon" have the -na/nä ending here?
They are in the essive case (seuraavana iltapäivänä). Finnish frequently uses the essive case to express when an event happens, similar to how we say "on the following afternoon" in English.
We have two words indicating destination here (metsään and leikkimään). Is this common?
Yes! The verb mennä (to go) naturally points towards a destination. Here, the dog is going to a physical place (metsään, into the forest) and an action (leikkimään, "into" playing). Both correctly take an illative (into) ending to match the verb menee.
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