Breakdown of Meidän täytyy lakata tuhlaamasta aikaa ja tehdä työ.
ja
and
me
we
aika
time (concept, duration)
tehdä
to do
työ
work
täytyä
to have to
lakata
to stop
tuhlata
to waste
Questions & Answers about Meidän täytyy lakata tuhlaamasta aikaa ja tehdä työ.
Why is the verb to waste in the form tuhlaamasta?
The verb lakata (to stop) is a phase verb that requires the action you are stopping to be in the 3rd infinitive elative form, which ends in -masta or -mästä. You can think of it literally as stepping out of the action.
Why is työ in the basic nominative form instead of the genitive-looking accusative työn?
Normally, a total object gets an -n ending. However, this sentence is governed by the necessity verb täytyy. A major rule in Finnish is that the total object of a necessity sentence drops the -n ending and takes the basic nominative form.
Why is tehdä (to do) in its basic dictionary form rather than matching tuhlaamasta?
tehdä is linked by ja (and) to the first verb, lakata, not to the wasting action. Both lakata and tehdä are governed directly by täytyy (we must stop... and we must do). If we were stopping both actions, it would be tuhlaamasta ja tekemästä.
As a quick refresher, why does the sentence start with Meidän instead of Me?
Necessity verbs like täytyy require their subject to be in the genitive case. Because of this, the phrase we must is always expressed as meidän täytyy.
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