Breakdown of Voi ei, tuhma poika piirsi seinään nauraen!
poika
boy
nauraa
to laugh
seinä
wall
voi ei
oh no
piirtää
to draw
tuhma
naughty
Questions & Answers about Voi ei, tuhma poika piirsi seinään nauraen!
What is the form nauraen and how is it used in this sentence?
Nauraen is the second infinitive instructive form of the verb nauraa (to laugh). It is made by adding -en to the verb's infinitive stem. In a sentence, it acts like an adverb to describe exactly how the main action happened, translating nicely to "laughing" or "while laughing".
Does the ending of nauraen change if the subject is plural?
No, this second infinitive form does not change to match the subject. Even if the sentence were about multiple naughty boys (tuhmat pojat), the word describing how they did the action would remain exactly the same: nauraen.
Why is it seinään (into the wall) and not seinällä (on the wall)?
In Finnish, verbs like piirtää (to draw) and kirjoittaa (to write) are thought of as directing an action onto or into a destination. Because of this, they require the illative case (the "into" case, -än) rather than the adessive case (-llä).
Why does the verb piirtää become piirsi in the past tense?
Piirtää is a type 1 verb. To form the past tense, the final vowel is dropped and replaced by -i. For many verbs where this leaves a t directly before the -i, the t changes to an s. This is why the stem becomes piirsi- instead of piirti-.
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