Questions & Answers about Patikoidaan järvelle ja syödään eväät!
Why do we use the passive forms patikoidaan and syödään to mean "let's hike" and "let's eat"?
In colloquial Finnish, using the passive present form on its own without the pronoun me (we) is the standard way to say "let's do something." If we had added me in front of them (like me patikoidaan), the sentence would simply mean "we hike."
How is the passive form constructed for the verbs patikoida and syödä?
Both are type 2 verbs. For verb type 2, forming the passive is very straightforward: you just take the infinitive (the dictionary form) and add -an or -än. Therefore, patikoida becomes patikoidaan, and syödä becomes syödään.
Why is järvelle (to the lake) in the allative case (-lle) instead of the illative case (järveen)?
In Finnish, you generally use the external location cases (meaning "onto" or "at") for open areas such as lakes, yards, or fields. If you used the internal case järveen, it would mean you are hiking directly into the water!
Why is the object eväät (snacks) in the basic plural form instead of the partitive case (eväitä)?