Word
Äiti kielsi poikaa lyömästä koiraa.
Meaning
The mother forbade the boy from hitting the dog.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Äiti kielsi poikaa lyömästä koiraa.
Why does the verb lyödä (to hit) take the form lyömästä here?
The verb kieltää (to forbid/prevent) requires the action being prevented to be in the third infinitive elative form (-masta/-mästä). You can think of it like the English "forbade the boy from hitting", where the elative case carries that "away from" or "out of" meaning.
Why is poikaa in the partitive case instead of being a total object?
When you use kieltää to forbid someone from doing something, the person being forbidden must be in the partitive case. Therefore, "forbade the boy" becomes kielsi poikaa.
Why is koiraa also in the partitive case?
Koiraa is the object of the verb lyödä (to hit). Because hitting is considered an incomplete action (you hit a surface or part of something, not the whole thing to completion), lyödä is a partitive verb and always requires a partitive object.
Could I just use the basic infinitive and say Äiti kielsi poikaa lyödä koiraa?
No, that would be grammatically incorrect in Finnish. While English sometimes uses the basic infinitive in related phrases, Finnish verbs of prevention like kieltää and estää strictly demand the -masta/-mästä verb form.