Breakdown of Pidätkö sääntöä reiluna vai epäreiluna?
vai
or (in questions)
sääntö
rule
pitää
to consider (as)
epäreilu
unfair
reilu
fair (just)
Questions & Answers about Pidätkö sääntöä reiluna vai epäreiluna?
Why do reilu and epäreilu have the -na ending here?
This is the essive case ending. When using the verb pitää to mean 'to consider', the adjective describing your opinion must be in the essive case. You can think of the -na ending as meaning 'as', so you are literally asking if they consider the rule 'as fair' or 'as unfair'.
Why is sääntö (rule) in the partitive case (sääntöä)?
Doesn't the verb pitää usually mean 'to like'?
It does when it is followed by the elative case (-sta/-stä), like in pidän säännöstä (I like the rule). However, when pitää is followed by a partitive object and an essive adjective, the meaning changes to 'to consider' or 'to regard as'.
Why does the sentence use vai instead of tai for the word 'or'?
Both words mean 'or', but vai is used specifically in questions where you are asking the listener to choose one of the options. Because a rule cannot be both fair and unfair at the same time, and you want them to pick one, vai is the correct choice here.
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