Breakdown of Mä väistäis iskun, mut se on tosi arvaamaton.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
minä
I
mutta
but
arvata
to guess
todella
really (very, intensifier)
isku
attack
väistää
to dodge
Questions & Answers about Mä väistäis iskun, mut se on tosi arvaamaton.
How is the word arvaamaton formed here?
It is the negative participle of the verb arvata (to guess). To form it, you take the strong verb stem (arvaa-) and add the suffix -maton. Literally, it means "unguessed" or "unguessable", which we naturally translate here as "unpredictable".
Why doesn't väistäis have a personal ending if it means "I would dodge"?
In standard Finnish, this would be väistäisin (the conditional mood). However, this sentence is written in spoken Finnish. In spoken language, the personal ending for "I" is often dropped from the verb, especially because the spoken pronoun mä (I) already makes it clear who is doing the dodging.
Why is the object iskun in the genitive/accusative case (-n) instead of the partitive?
Because dodging the attack is viewed as a complete, successful action. When an affirmative action fully affects the object, we use the -n ending. If the sentence were negative (e.g., "I wouldn't dodge the attack"), the object would be in the partitive case: Mä en väistäis iskua.
Are mä, väistäis, and mut all spoken language words?
Yes, this sentence is heavily conversational! mä is short for minä (I), väistäis is short for väistäisin, and mut is short for mutta (but). Using tosi instead of todella to mean "really" is also very typical of everyday speech.
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