Breakdown of Opettaja kielsi opiskelijoita kiroilemasta luokassa.
opettaja
teacher
opiskelija
student
luokka
classroom
kieltää
to forbid
Questions & Answers about Opettaja kielsi opiskelijoita kiroilemasta luokassa.
Why is the verb for swearing in the -masta form (kiroilemasta)?
The main verb kieltää (here kielsi, forbade) is a verb of prevention. In Finnish, verbs that express stopping or preventing an action require the second verb to be in the 3rd infinitive elative form. You make this by adding -masta or -mästä to the verb stem, which translates roughly to "from swearing."
Why is the object opiskelijoita in the partitive case?
When using kieltää to say you forbid someone from doing something, the person being forbidden takes the partitive case. Here, the word for student (opiskelija) becomes the plural partitive opiskelijoita.
What is the base form of kielsi and why did the consonants change?
The base verb is kieltää (to forbid). When forming the past tense (imperfect), verbs ending in -ltää or -ntää typically change the t to an s before the past tense i. This makes the third-person singular form kielsi.
What is the base verb of kiroilemasta?
The base verb is kiroilla (to swear). It is a frequentative verb derived from kirota (to curse). The -illa ending implies doing something repeatedly or continuously, which perfectly describes swearing in a classroom!