Breakdown of Minä pidän tätä keksintöä nerokkaana.
tämä
this
minä
I
pitää
to consider (as)
keksintö
invention
Questions & Answers about Minä pidän tätä keksintöä nerokkaana.
Wait, doesn't pitää usually mean "to like"? Why does it mean "to consider" here?
Pitää is a highly versatile verb. When you want to say you "like" something, you use it with the elative case (ending in -sta/-stä). However, in this specific structure—pitää + partitive object + essive complement—it translates to "to consider" or "to regard as".
Why is the object tätä keksintöä in the partitive case?
When using pitää to mean "to consider", the thing you are evaluating takes the partitive case. So, the basic form tämä keksintö (this invention) becomes tätä keksintöä.
What case is nerokkaana in, and why is it used?
It is in the essive case, which has the ending -na/-nä and often translates to "as a..." or "in the role of...". In the pitää + partitive + essive construction, the essive case expresses the specific opinion or quality you are assigning to the object. Literally, you consider the invention as ingenious.
How does the basic adjective nerokas (ingenious) turn into nerokkaana?