Questions & Answers about Me lähdimme Espanjaan ja sopeuduimme uuteen kulttuuriin.
Why is it Espanjaan (into Spain) when the English translation says "left for Spain"?
The verb lähteä (to leave) is a rection verb that requires a specific case depending on the direction. When you leave to go somewhere, Finnish uses the illative (into) case. You are literally saying "We left into Spain." If you wanted to say where you departed from, you would use the elative (out of) case, like lähdimme Suomesta.
Does the verb sopeutua (to adapt) always require the illative case?
Yes! Just like lähteä, sopeutua is a rection verb. In English, you adapt 'to' something, but in Finnish, you adapt 'into' it using the illative case. That is why "to the new culture" is translated with the illative words uuteen kulttuuriin.
Why does uusi (new) change to uuteen here?
Adjectives must match the case of the noun they describe, so uusi needs to be in the illative case to match kulttuuriin. The word uusi has a special stem: before adding most endings, the -si changes to -te-. So, uusi becomes the stem uute-, and then we add the illative ending -en to get uuteen.
How do we get sopeuduimme from the basic verb sopeutua?