Breakdown of Kirjoitan suosituksen asiantuntijalle, jonka työtä kunnioitan.
kirjoittaa
to write
kunnioittaa
to respect
työ
work
joka
who / which (relative pronoun)
Questions & Answers about Kirjoitan suosituksen asiantuntijalle, jonka työtä kunnioitan.
Why is the relative pronoun jonka used here instead of joka?
jonka is the genitive (possessive) form of the relative pronoun joka (who/which). Just like 'who' becomes 'whose' in English to show possession, joka becomes jonka. Here, it translates to 'whose work', referring back to the expert (asiantuntijalle).
Why is työtä in the partitive case?
In Finnish, certain verbs always require their object to be in the partitive case. The verb kunnioittaa (to respect) expresses an emotion or attitude, so its object must be partitive. Because you respect the work, työ takes the partitive ending -tä to become työtä.
Why is suosituksen in the genitive form (ending in -n) rather than the partitive?
It is the object of the verb kirjoitan, and you are writing one entire recommendation. When you do something to a whole, countable object and emphasize the completed result, Finnish uses the total object form, which usually looks identical to the genitive case (ending in -n). If you used the partitive (suositusta), it would mean you are in the continuous, unfinished process of writing it.
Why does asiantuntijalle end in -lle?