Word
Jänis katoaa, mikä on mahdotonta.
Meaning
The rabbit disappears, which is impossible.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Jänis katoaa, mikä on mahdotonta.
olla
to be
mikä
which (relative pronoun)
jänis
rabbit
kadota
to disappear
Questions & Answers about Jänis katoaa, mikä on mahdotonta.
Why does this sentence use mikä instead of joka for "which"?
Joka refers to the specific noun right in front of it, but mikä is used when "which" refers to an entire previous sentence or action. Here, mikä refers to the whole event of the rabbit disappearing (the entire clause Jänis katoaa), not just the rabbit itself.
Why is the word for impossible, mahdotonta, in the partitive case here?
In Finnish, when an adjective describes an entire clause or an abstract idea (represented here by mikä), it takes the partitive case. Since it describes the whole situation of the rabbit disappearing rather than a concrete noun, we use the partitive mahdotonta instead of the nominative mahdoton.
The verb katoaa comes from the dictionary form kadota. Why does it have a t instead of a d?
Kadota (to disappear) is a type 4 verb. These verbs have "reverse" consonant gradation: the infinitive has the weak grade (with d), but the conjugated present tense forms have the strong grade (with t). That is why the d changes to t, giving us katoaa (it disappears).
How do we get the partitive form mahdotonta from the base word mahdoton?