Breakdown of Kykenetkö sinä tähän ihmeelliseen temppuun?
tämä
this
sinä
you
temppu
trick
kyetä
to be able to
ihmeellinen
miraculous
Questions & Answers about Kykenetkö sinä tähän ihmeelliseen temppuun?
Since this lesson is about focus adverbs, how would I add 'even' to ask 'Are even you able to do this miraculous trick?'
You would use jopa (even) since this is not a negative sentence. You place it right before the word it emphasizes. To emphasize 'you', you would say: Kykenetkö jopa sinä tähän ihmeelliseen temppuun?
Why are the words for 'this miraculous trick' in the illative (into) case here: tähän ihmeelliseen temppuun?
The verb kyetä (to be able to, to be capable of) requires the target noun to be in the illative case (the 'mihin' form). In Finnish, you are literally capable into a trick.
Where does the verb form kykenetkö come from?
It comes from the dictionary form kyetä. This is a Type 6 verb, which means it undergoes a major stem change where the ending -etä becomes -ene-. It also undergoes reverse consonant gradation, bringing back a hidden 'k' to make the strong stem kykene-. Then we just add the 'you' ending -t and the question particle -kö.
Do all three words in tähän ihmeelliseen temppuun have the exact same case ending?
They are all in the illative case, but the endings look slightly different because of their word types. The pronoun tämä (this) irregularly becomes tähän. Words ending in -nen like ihmeellinen change to a -see- stem before the -n ending (ihmeelliseen). Finally, the basic noun temppu simply doubles its final vowel and adds -n (temppuun).
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