Breakdown of Nostetaanhan malja tälle uudelle avioliitolle!
tämä
this
uusi
new
avioliitto
marriage
nostaa
to raise, to lift
malja
toast
Questions & Answers about Nostetaanhan malja tälle uudelle avioliitolle!
Why is the passive form nostetaan used here when translating to 'Let us raise'?
In Finnish, the passive form is the standard way to say 'let's do something' in everyday language. So nostetaan literally means 'is raised', but practically means 'let's raise'.
What does the -han ending do on the end of nostetaanhan?
The clitic -han softens the suggestion. It makes it sound less like a strict command and more like a friendly invitation or shared agreement, similar to adding 'shall we?' in English.
The current lesson is about congratulating. Why does this sentence use the allative case (-lle) instead of the elative (-sta / -stä)?
While verbs like onnitella (to congratulate) and kiittää (to thank) take the elative case to show what you are congratulating for, this sentence uses the phrase nostaa malja (to raise a toast). This specific phrase requires the allative case (-lle) for the person or thing you are toasting to, which gives us tälle uudelle avioliitolle (to this new marriage).
Why isn't the object malja written with an -n ending (maljan)?
In Finnish, when an action is a command or a 'let's' suggestion (which uses the passive form), the object drops its normal -n ending. It looks exactly like the basic dictionary form (the nominative case) instead.
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