Breakdown of Ajoimme kaupunkiin eksymättä ja pysähtymättä.
ja
and
kaupunki
city
ajaa
to drive
eksyä
to get lost
pysähtyä
to stop (moving)
Questions & Answers about Ajoimme kaupunkiin eksymättä ja pysähtymättä.
How do eksymättä and pysähtymättä translate to "without getting lost" and "without stopping"?
They use the third infinitive abessive form, which means "without doing" the action. You make it by taking the strong verb stem and adding the ending -matta or -mättä. Here, eksyä (to get lost) becomes eksymättä and pysähtyä (to stop) becomes pysähtymättä.
Why do both of these words end in -mättä instead of -matta?
This is because of vowel harmony. Since the roots of eksyä and pysähtyä contain front vowels (e, y, ä), their endings must also use the front vowel ä. If the verbs had back vowels like a, o, or u (like nukkua, to sleep), they would take the -matta ending instead (like nukkumatta).
Is ajoimme the past tense of ajaa?
Yes! Ajoimme means "we drove" in the past tense (imperfect). To form this, the final a in the stem of ajaa changes to o before adding the past tense marker -i- and the personal ending -mme. If you used the present tense ajamme, it would mean "we drive" or "we are driving".
Why does kaupunki (city) change to kaupunkiin here?
Kaupunkiin is in the illative case, which expresses movement "into" a place. Because they are driving to (into) the city, Finnish uses this case. For a word ending in a single vowel like kaupunki, you form the illative by doubling that last vowel and adding -n.
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