Breakdown of Minun täytyy vahtia lasta ja estää häntä putoamasta.
minä
I
hän
he / she
ja
and
lapsi
child
täytyä
to have to
pudota
to fall
estää
to prevent
vahtia
to watch over
Questions & Answers about Minun täytyy vahtia lasta ja estää häntä putoamasta.
Why is the verb for "falling" in the -masta form (putoamasta)?
The verb estää (to prevent) is a verb of prevention. In Finnish, verbs about stopping, preventing, or ceasing an action require the following verb to be in the 3rd infinitive elative form (-masta or -mästä). You can think of it as preventing someone "out of" falling.
Why do we use the partitive häntä after estää instead of the accusative hänet?
The verb estää takes a partitive object. Because preventing someone is viewed as an ongoing effort rather than a completed result with an endpoint, the object being prevented (häntä) stays in the partitive case.
Why is lasta (child) in the partitive case?
The verb vahtia (to watch or guard) is a partitive verb. Watching is a continuous action without a definite endpoint, so its object must take the partitive case.
As a quick refresher, why does the sentence start with minun instead of minä?
This is the standard Finnish necessity structure. With verbs expressing obligation like täytyy (must), the person who has to do the action is put into the genitive case (minun).
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