Questions & Answers about Mies ajoi koko päivän pitämättä taukoa.
How does pitämättä mean "without taking"?
Pitämättä is the third infinitive abessive form of the verb pitää (to keep / to hold). The -matta / -mättä ending translates to "without doing" an action. You form it by taking the strong stem of the verb (pitä-) and adding the ending.
Why is the verb pitää used here instead of a verb for "to take"?
In Finnish, you don't "take" a break (ottaa taukoa). Instead, you "keep" or "hold" a break. The natural Finnish phrase is pitää taukoa (to take a break).
Why is taukoa in the partitive case here?
Because the action is negative! The -mättä form means "without doing", which acts like a negative verb. In Finnish, objects of negative actions must be in the partitive case, so the basic word tauko becomes taukoa.
Why does it say koko päivän and not just koko päivä?
When you express doing an action for an entire, unbroken block of time (like "all day"), the time word takes the -n ending (the accusative case). So koko päivä (the whole day) becomes koko päivän to show exactly how long the driving lasted.