Breakdown of Voit harjoitella ääntämällä tämän sanan itse.
tämä
this
sana
word
harjoitella
to practice
voida
can, to be able to
itse
self, oneself
ääntää
to pronounce
Questions & Answers about Voit harjoitella ääntämällä tämän sanan itse.
How does ääntämällä mean 'by pronouncing'?
This is the third infinitive adessive form of the verb ääntää (to pronounce). In Finnish, you express 'by doing' something by taking the strong verb stem (in this case, ääntä-) and adding the ending -malla or -mällä (depending on vowel harmony). It answers the question 'how' or 'by what means' you can practice.
Why is the object tämän sanan instead of the partitive tätä sanaa?
Verb forms ending in -malla or -mällä can still take an object, just like a regular verb. Here, pronouncing the word is seen as a complete, bounded action (you pronounce the whole word from start to finish), so it takes the total object case, which looks like the genitive (tämän sanan). If the action were meant to be continuous or incomplete, you would use the partitive (tätä sanaa).
Is ääntämällä related to the word for 'sound'?
Yes! The base verb is ääntää (to pronounce), which is derived from the noun ääni (sound, voice). When you use ääntämällä, you are quite literally practicing 'by sounding out' or 'by voicing' the word.
Could I say itsesi instead of itse at the end of the sentence?
Yes, you could say itsesi (yourself) since the sentence is addressed to 'you' (voit). However, the plain word itse is very commonly used as an unchanging adverb meaning 'by oneself' or 'personally', regardless of who is doing the action. Both sound perfectly natural here.
Learn Voit harjoitella ääntämällä tämän sanan itse and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free