Breakdown of Kun poika auttoi minua, hän oli ahkera, mutta tänään hän on laiska.
olla
to be
minä
I
hän
he / she
mutta
but
poika
boy
tänään
today
auttaa
to help
kun
when (conjunction)
ahkera
hardworking
laiska
lazy
Questions & Answers about Kun poika auttoi minua, hän oli ahkera, mutta tänään hän on laiska.
Why is the object minua in the partitive case here?
The verb auttaa (to help) is a partitive verb, meaning it always requires its object to be in the partitive case. Therefore, you must use minua instead of the accusative form.
Why do we use kun for "when" instead of milloin?
Milloin is strictly a question word used to ask "When?". Because this sentence is making a statement connecting two ideas ("At the time when the boy helped me..."), you must use the conjunction kun.
How does the verb auttaa change to auttoi in the past tense?
To form the past tense (imperfect) for verbs ending in -aa or -ää, the final vowel is replaced by the past tense marker -i. For the third-person singular (hän), the final vowel is not doubled like it is in the present tense (hän auttaa), so it simply becomes auttoi.
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