Breakdown of Mä yritän estää tota koiraa haukkumasta.
koira
dog
tuo
that
minä
I
yrittää
to try
estää
to prevent
haukkua
to bark
Questions & Answers about Mä yritän estää tota koiraa haukkumasta.
Why does the word for barking end in -masta (haukkumasta)?
This is the core rule for verbs of prevention like estää. They require the action being prevented to be in the 3rd infinitive elative form (-masta or -mästä). It translates beautifully to English, as the elative case usually means 'out of' or 'from', matching the English phrase 'prevent from barking'.
Why is the object of the sentence in the partitive case (tota koiraa)?
The verb estää (to prevent) takes a partitive object. Whenever you prevent a person, animal, or thing from doing something, that noun must be in the partitive case.
What does tota mean here, and why isn't it tuota?
tota is simply the spoken language version of tuota, which is the partitive form of tuo (that). Because the speaker starts with the spoken pronoun mä instead of minä, they naturally use spoken forms for other words in the sentence as well.
Why is estää just in its basic dictionary form?
It is part of a verb chain starting with yritän (I try). The verb yrittää requires the following verb to be in the first infinitive (the basic dictionary form), so you get yritän estää (I try to prevent).
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