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Älä taita uuden kirjan sivua.

Älä taita uuden kirjan sivua.
Do not fold the page of the new book.
From Lesson 122:Negative commands (älä)·Finnish

Questions & Answers about Älä taita uuden kirjan sivua.

How is the command word taita formed?
Taita comes from the verb taittaa (to fold). To form the negative imperative, you take the 'I' form of the verb (minä taitan) and drop the personal ending -n. Notice that the strong double -tt- in taittaa weakens to a single -t- in taitan, and this weak stem is what we use for the negative command taita.
Why is the object sivua in the partitive case?
In Finnish, the object of a negative sentence must always be in the partitive case. Because this is a negative command (älä taita, meaning 'do not fold'), the word for page (sivu) takes the partitive ending -a to become sivua.
Why are both uuden and kirjan in the genitive case ending in -n?
They translate to 'of the new book'. Kirjan is the genitive form of kirja (book), showing possession because the page belongs to the book. Uuden is the adjective uusi (new). Adjectives must agree with the noun they describe, so it also takes the genitive ending.
Why does uusi change to uuden instead of just adding an -n?
Finnish words ending in -si, like uusi (new) or vesi (water), belong to a special word type. When you add endings to them, the -si usually changes to -te- or -de-. For the genitive, the stem becomes -de- before the -n, making it uuden.

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