Breakdown of Me jätimme kirotun arkun luolaan.
me
we
jättää
to leave (something behind)
luola
cave
kirottu
cursed
arkku
chest
Questions & Answers about Me jätimme kirotun arkun luolaan.
Why is "in the cave" translated as luolaan (into the cave) instead of luolassa?
This is the main quirk of verbs like jättää (to leave something). In English, you leave something in a place. In Finnish, the action of leaving is seen as a movement ending into that place. Therefore, it requires the illative case (the "into" case), making it luolaan.
Why do kirotun and arkun end in -n?
They form the direct object of the sentence (the cursed chest). Because the action of leaving the chest is a completed, whole action, the object takes the accusative case. For singular nouns, this looks identical to the genitive case ending in -n. Both the noun (arkku) and its describing adjective (kirottu) must match in case.
Why does jätimme only have one t when the dictionary form is jättää?
This is consonant gradation. Adding the personal ending -mme closes the syllable. A closed syllable forces the strong double tt of the basic verb to weaken into a single t.
What kind of word is kirotun?
It is the passive past participle of the verb kirota (to curse), functioning here as an adjective meaning "cursed". Just like a normal adjective, it takes the same ending as the noun it describes, which is why kirottu becomes kirotun to match arkun.
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