Breakdown of Taikuri valitsi kortin ja huijasi meitä, mikä oli hauskaa.
olla
to be
ja
and
me
we
valita
to choose
hauska
fun
mikä
which (relative pronoun)
taikuri
magician
kortti
card
huijata
to trick
Questions & Answers about Taikuri valitsi kortin ja huijasi meitä, mikä oli hauskaa.
Why do we use mikä here instead of joka for 'which'?
In Finnish, joka refers to the specific noun right before it. If we used joka here, it would technically refer to 'us' (meitä). We use mikä when 'which' refers to the entire preceding action or clause—in this case, the whole event of the magician choosing a card and tricking the audience.
Why is the adjective hauskaa in the partitive case instead of the basic form hauska?
When a sentence describes an abstract idea, an activity, or an entire clause (represented here by the pronoun mikä), the descriptive adjective must be in the partitive case. You are describing the situation as 'a fun thing' rather than describing a specific physical object.
Why does the verb valitsi take the object kortin (genitive), while huijasi takes meitä (partitive)?
This comes down to how each verb behaves. valita (to choose) takes a total object here because picking the card is a completed action, so kortti gets the -n ending. However, huijata (to trick/cheat) always requires its object to be in the partitive case, which is why me (we) becomes meitä.
How are the past tense verbs valitsi and huijasi formed?
valitsi comes from valita (a Type 5 verb). Its present tense stem is valitse-, and to make the past tense, that -e- changes to -i-, resulting in valitsi (he/she chose). huijasi comes from huijata (a Type 4 verb). To form its past tense, you simply drop the infinitive ending -ta and add -si.
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