Breakdown of Hirviön isku on aivan arvaamaton.
olla
to be
hirviö
monster
arvata
to guess
aivan
exactly / quite (completely)
isku
attack
Questions & Answers about Hirviön isku on aivan arvaamaton.
How do we build the negative participle arvaamaton from the verb?
It comes from the verb arvata (to guess). To form the negative participle, you take the strong vowel stem—which you can find by looking at the third-person singular arvaa (he/she guesses)—and add the suffix -maton. Literally, it means "unguessable", which translates smoothly to "unpredictable".
Why is aivan used for "completely" here instead of kokonaan?
Aivan is used as an intensifier for adjectives and adverbs, much like "absolutely" or "quite" in English. Kokonaan means "entirely" or "wholly" in a physical or complete sense, and it usually modifies verbs (like eating a cake completely). Since we are intensifying the adjective arvaamaton, aivan is the natural choice.
Is the noun isku (attack/blow) related to a verb?
Yes, it is the noun form of the verb iskeä (to strike, to hit). Many Finnish nouns are formed directly from verb stems by taking the basic stem and altering the ending, often ending in -u or -y.
Why is arvaamaton in the nominative case here and not the partitive?
When using the verb olla (to be), the adjective describing the subject matches its case if the subject is a countable noun. An isku (attack/strike) is a specific, countable noun in the nominative case here, so the describing word arvaamaton stays in the nominative as well.
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