Breakdown of Luulin koiraa vaarattomaksi ja annoin sille ruokaa.
koira
dog
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
ja
and
ruoka
food
antaa
to give
luulla
to think, to suppose
vaaraton
harmless
Questions & Answers about Luulin koiraa vaarattomaksi ja annoin sille ruokaa.
Why do we use the partitive koiraa and the translative vaarattomaksi?
This is the specific structure used with the verb luulla (to think, to assume). When you express what you thought something was, the object takes the partitive case (koiraa) and the description takes the translative case (vaarattomaksi).
Where does the tricky form vaarattomaksi come from?
The base word is vaara (danger). Adding the suffix -ton (without) creates the adjective vaaraton (harmless). When we add the translative ending -ksi, the -ton ending must change to its stem form -ttoma-, which gives us vaarattomaksi.
Why is ruoka in the partitive case (ruokaa) here?
Why do we use sille instead of sitä or sillä?
Sille is the allative case of the pronoun se (it). The verb antaa (to give) dictates that the recipient must be in the allative case, answering 'to whom/what?'. If you were giving food to a person, you would use hänelle.
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