Breakdown of Tämän auton vaihteisto on rikki, joten etsin jotakin toista.
tämä
this
olla
to be
auto
car
etsiä
to look for
toinen
other, another; second
jokin
something
rikki
broken
joten
so, therefore
vaihteisto
gearbox
Questions & Answers about Tämän auton vaihteisto on rikki, joten etsin jotakin toista.
Why is toista used here instead of muuta?
This is the core difference between toinen and muu. We use toista (the partitive of toinen) because the speaker is looking for another car, meaning an alternative of the same kind. If they used muuta (the partitive of muu), it would imply they are looking for something completely different, not a car at all.
Why are both jotakin and toista in the partitive case?
They are the object of the verb etsiä (to look for). In Finnish, etsiä is a partitive verb, meaning the thing you are looking for must always be in the partitive case.
I often see jotain instead of jotakin. Could I use that here?
Yes, absolutely. Jotain and jotakin are both partitive forms of the pronoun jokin (some/something). Jotakin is the standard written form, while jotain is extremely common in both spoken and written everyday Finnish.
Why isn't rikki (broken) inflected to agree with the subject like a normal adjective?
Unlike a regular adjective, rikki is an invariable word. It originally comes from a word meaning 'in pieces' and it never changes its form to match the noun, regardless of what is broken.
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