Learn Finnish: Join katkeraa mehua ennen kuin otin silmäsiteen pois. - I drank bitter juice before I took the blindfold off.

Join katkeraa mehua ennen kuin otin silmäsiteen pois.

I drank bitter juice before I took the blindfold off.

Breakdown of Join katkeraa mehua ennen kuin otin silmäsiteen pois.

Questions & Answers about Join katkeraa mehua ennen kuin otin silmäsiteen pois.

Why is katkeraa mehua in the partitive case?

Mehu (juice) is an uncountable mass noun, and in this sentence, you are drinking an unspecified amount of it (essentially "some bitter juice"). When the object is a mass noun like this, it takes the partitive case.

Why is silmäsiteen in the genitive-accusative case (-n), unlike the juice?

Taking the blindfold off is a completed action that affects a whole, countable object (one blindfold). Finnish marks this kind of "total object" with the genitive-accusative case (-n). The juice is an open-ended mass noun, which is why it stays in the partitive.

How does the word silmäside change to silmäsiteen?

The word silmäside (blindfold) is a noun ending in -e. When declining -e words, the final vowel doubles to -ee- before the ending. This also triggers consonant gradation, where the weak d becomes a strong t. This creates the stem silmäsitee-, to which we add the -n ending.

Why is it ennen kuin instead of just ennen for "before"?

You must use the phrase ennen kuin when "before" introduces a full clause with its own verb (here, otin). You only use ennen by itself when it is followed directly by a noun, such as ennen yötä (before the night).