Breakdown of Sinä et uskaltaisi koskea tuohon rottaan.
tuo
that
sinä
you
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
koskea
to touch
Questions & Answers about Sinä et uskaltaisi koskea tuohon rottaan.
How is the negative conditional et uskaltaisi formed?
To make the negative conditional, you use the negative verb (here, et for "you") alongside the main verb with the conditional marker -isi. The trick is that in negative sentences, you do not add a personal ending to the main verb. For the verb uskaltaa (verb type 1), you just take the strong stem (uskalta-) and add -isi, giving you et uskaltaisi.
Why is it tuohon rottaan instead of a typical object case like the partitive?
This is because of the verb koskea (to touch). In Finnish, koskea is a verb that strictly requires its target to be in the illative case (the "into" case). Even though in English you just "touch a rat," in Finnish you grammatically reach into it. Therefore, both tuo (that) and rotta (rat) take illative endings, becoming tuohon rottaan.
Why is koskea in its basic dictionary form?
The sentence uses a verb chain: "dare to touch". The first verb changes to show the person, tense, and mood (et uskaltaisi). The verb uskaltaa (to dare) requires the verb that immediately follows it to be in its basic dictionary form (the first infinitive). Because of this rule, koskea doesn't take any extra endings.
How do you get the form tuohon from the word tuo (that)?