Breakdown of Poika kaatui ja satutti itsensä.
ja
and
poika
boy
itse
self, oneself
kaatua
to fall down
satuttaa
to hurt
Questions & Answers about Poika kaatui ja satutti itsensä.
How does the word itsensä work here?
The base word is itse (self). Because the boy hurt himself (his own self), we add the 3rd person possessive suffix -nsä (his/her). This creates itsensä.
Could I say satutti hänet instead of satutti itsensä?
No, because hänet means 'him' or 'her' referring to someone else. If you say Poika satutti hänet, it means the boy hurt another person. To show that he hurt himself, you must use the reflexive pronoun itsensä.
Why use satutti here? I thought 'to hurt' was sattua.
They are two different verbs! satuttaa (past tense satutti) means 'to actively hurt or injure' a person or a body part. sattua means 'to ache' (like päähän sattuu - my head hurts). Since the boy actively injured himself, we use satuttaa.
What is the basic form of kaatui?
It comes from the verb kaatua (to fall down). This is the past tense (imperfect). For the 3rd person singular (he/she), you take the stem (kaatu-) and add the past tense marker -i, resulting in kaatui.
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