Breakdown of Hävettääkö tuo suuri virhe sinua?
tuo
that
sinä
you
virhe
error
suuri
large, great
hävettää
to make ashamed
Questions & Answers about Hävettääkö tuo suuri virhe sinua?
How does the causative suffix work in the verb hävettääkö?
It comes from the basic verb hävetä (to be ashamed). By adding the causative suffix -ttää, it becomes hävettää (to make someone ashamed or to cause shame). The -kö at the very end is the question particle.
Why is the word for 'you' in the partitive case (sinua)?
Causative verbs that describe causing an emotion or physical feeling, like hävettää (to cause shame) or naurattaa (to make laugh), almost always take a partitive object. This is because the feeling they cause is viewed as an ongoing state without a strict endpoint.
Why is the sentence structured with the mistake as the subject, rather than 'you'?
Causative verbs often flip the structure you might expect in English. Instead of saying 'Are you ashamed of the mistake?', the Finnish causative makes the source of the feeling the subject. So, tuo suuri virhe (that big mistake) is the subject actively causing the feeling of shame in sinua (you).
Why does the verb hävettääkö have to be the first word in the sentence?
In Finnish yes/no questions, the word that gets the question suffix (-ko or -kö) must go at the very beginning of the sentence. Since the question is about whether the action itself is happening, the verb gets the suffix and moves to the front.
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