Breakdown of Hän jätti vanhan työpaikan katumatta sitä koskaan.
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
hän
he / she
vanha
old
koskaan
never / ever
työpaikka
job
jättää
to leave (something behind)
katua
to regret
Questions & Answers about Hän jätti vanhan työpaikan katumatta sitä koskaan.
How is katumatta formed, and what does it mean here?
It means "without regretting." It uses the third infinitive abessive ending -matta (or -mättä). You form it by taking the strong stem of the verb katua (to regret), which is katu-, and adding -matta. This ending translates directly to "without doing" the action.
Why is vanhan työpaikan in the genitive case?
It is the object of the verb jätti (left). Because leaving the job was a completed, total action by a specific person, the object takes the genitive-like accusative case (ending in -n).
Why is sitä in the partitive case?
The word sitä (it) is the object of the verb katua (to regret). Verbs that express emotions or feelings, like katua, rakastaa (to love), or vihata (to hate), always require their object to be in the partitive case.
I thought koskaan meant "never". Why does it mean "ever" in this sentence?
The word koskaan actually means "ever." To say "never," you normally need a negative verb (like ei) plus koskaan. Even though there is no separate negative verb here, the -matta ending means "without" and inherently acts as a negative word. This creates the negative context needed to mean "without ever."
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