Breakdown of Tämä kammottava paikka on tyhjä, älä koske mihinkään!
tämä
this
olla
to be
mikään
anything, nothing (with negation)
älä
don't (negative imperative)
Questions & Answers about Tämä kammottava paikka on tyhjä, älä koske mihinkään!
Why is "anything" translated as mihinkään here instead of just mikään?
Mihinkään is the illative (the "into") case of the negative pronoun mikään. When inflecting these pronouns, the case ending goes in the middle: the base word mikä becomes mihin, and the negative suffix -kään is attached at the very end.
Why does the verb koskea (to touch) require the illative case (mihinkään) in this sentence?
In Finnish, the verb koskea requires its target to be in the illative case, as if you are moving your hand into contact with the object. So, while in English you just touch "a thing", in Finnish you touch "into a thing" (mihinkään).
Why use älä koske instead of et koske for "don't touch"?
Älä is the imperative (command) form of the negative verb for "you". You use älä plus the basic stem of the main verb (koske) when you are giving someone a direct order not to do something. Et koske is just a statement of fact meaning "you are not touching" or "you will not touch".
The word kammottava (creepy) ends in -va. Is this a verb form?