Breakdown of Mitä he mahtavat ajatella pörssin riskeistä?
he
they
mikä
what
ajatella
to think
pörssi
the stock market
mahtaa
to wonder / to might (auxiliary)
riski
the risk
Questions & Answers about Mitä he mahtavat ajatella pörssin riskeistä?
How does the verb mahtavat change the meaning of this sentence compared to just asking Mitä he ajattelevat?
Using the modal verb mahtaa turns a direct question into a speculation or a wonder. While Mitä he ajattelevat? just means "What do they think?", adding mahtavat (conjugated for he) followed by the 1st infinitive ajatella makes it "What might they think?" or "I wonder what they think?".
I learned earlier that mahtaa means "to fit". How does that apply here?
You are right that the concrete meaning of mahtaa is to physically fit into a space. However, at this level you will often see it used as an epistemic modal verb, meaning it expresses how likely or possible a situation is. In this sentence, it has nothing to do with fitting; instead, it expresses wondering or probability.
Why is the word for "risks" in the elative case (riskeistä)?
The verb ajatella (to think) requires the elative case (-sta/-stä) when you are talking about what you think about something. Here, the base word riski is put into the plural elative form riskeistä to mean "about the risks".
Why does the sentence start with Mitä instead of the basic form Mikä?
Mitä is acting as the object of the verb ajatella. Because thinking is a continuous, abstract action that does not have a clear endpoint, its object must be in the partitive case. So, the basic question word mikä (what) becomes mitä.
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