Breakdown of Älä pese autoa vahvoilla pesuaineilla.
auto
car
pestä
to wash
vahva
strong
älä
don't (negative imperative)
pesuaine
detergent
Questions & Answers about Älä pese autoa vahvoilla pesuaineilla.
How do we build the adessive plural words vahvoilla and pesuaineilla?
The adessive plural ending is -illa or -illä. For vahva (strong), the plural stem is vahvoi-, making it vahvoilla. For pesuaine (detergent), words ending in -e add an -i- to form the plural stem, becoming pesuainei-, which gives us pesuaineilla. Notice that the adjective vahvoilla must match the case and number of the noun it describes!
Doesn't the -lla ending usually mean 'on' or 'at'? Why does it mean 'with' here?
While the adessive case often means 'on' (like pöydällä for 'on the table'), it is also the standard way to express the tool or instrument used to complete an action. Using pesuaineilla is the Finnish way of saying 'by means of detergents' or 'using detergents'.
What form of the verb pestä (to wash) is pese here?
It is the imperative (command) form. To tell a single person not to do something, you use the negative command word älä (don't) plus the basic stem of the action verb. For pestä, that stem is pese, creating the phrase Älä pese.
Why is auto (car) in the partitive case (autoa)?
In Finnish, if a sentence is negative, the object of the action almost always has to be in the partitive case. Because this is a negative command (Älä pese), auto must take the partitive ending -a.
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