Breakdown of Emme halua tinkiä, mutta meidän täytyy joustaa.
mutta
but
me
we
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
haluta
to want
täytyä
to have to
joustaa
to be flexible / to yield
tinkiä
to bargain / to haggle
Questions & Answers about Emme halua tinkiä, mutta meidän täytyy joustaa.
This lesson is about the word vaikka (although). How could we rewrite this sentence using vaikka instead of mutta (but)?
You could say Vaikka emme halua tinkiä, meidän täytyy joustaa (Even though we don't want to haggle, we must be flexible). The conjunction vaikka connects the two ideas just like mutta, but it turns the first half into a background condition rather than two equal contrasting statements.
Why does the second half say meidän täytyy instead of "me täytyy"?
The verb täytyy (must / have to) is a special "necessity verb" in Finnish. It always requires the person doing the action to be in the genitive case. Therefore, the basic pronoun me (we) becomes meidän.
What form are the verbs tinkiä and joustaa in, and why?
They are both in the first infinitive, which is the basic dictionary form of a verb. Tinkiä (to haggle) stays in this form because it follows the verb haluta (to want). Joustaa (to be flexible) stays in this form because it follows the necessity verb täytyy (must).
Why is the verb halua not conjugated to match "we" (like "haluamme")?
In Finnish negative sentences, only the negative word itself changes to match the person (emme = we do not). The main verb drops its personal ending. So, instead of haluamme, you use the negative stem halua.
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