Breakdown of Hae lapiot, koska me menemme puutarhaan.
me
we
koska
because
mennä
to go
hakea
to fetch
lapio
shovel
puutarha
garden
Questions & Answers about Hae lapiot, koska me menemme puutarhaan.
Why does lapiot end in -t instead of being in the partitive case?
Lapiot is a plural total object. In this sentence, you are being told to fetch all the specific shovels, and the action is meant to be completed. When a plural object is complete like this, it takes the nominative plural ending -t. If you were just fetching some unspecified shovels, you would use the partitive plural (lapioita).
Does the fact that hae is a command change the object rule for lapiot?
Actually, no! While commands (imperatives) do change the rules for singular objects, plural total objects always take the -t ending regardless of the sentence type. So it is Hae lapiot! (Fetch the shovels!) and also Minä haen lapiot (I fetch the shovels).
What is the base dictionary form of the verb hae?
The dictionary form is hakea (to fetch or to get). To form the command for you, you find the stem by conjugating it for I (minä haen) and dropping the -n. Notice that the letter k disappears due to a rule called consonant gradation.
Why does the sentence use puutarhaan instead of puutarhassa?
Puutarhaan is in the illative case, which expresses movement into a place. Because the verb menemme (we go) indicates movement towards a destination, you must use the into ending -an rather than the in ending -ssa (puutarhassa).
Learn Hae lapiot, koska me menemme puutarhaan and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free