Learn Finnish: Yrittäjä yrittää aloittaa alusta. - The entrepreneur is trying to start over.

Yrittäjä (entrepreneur) is formed directly from the verb yrittää (to try or attempt) by adding the -jä suffix. This suffix creates a noun meaning the "doer" of an action, much like "-er" in English. So, an entrepreneur in Finnish is literally a "trier"!

Why is the elative case used for alusta here?

While this lesson focuses on the Elative + tulee + Nominative structure, alusta reminds us of the core meaning of the elative case: "out of" or "from". The noun alku means "beginning", so alusta literally translates to "from the beginning". The set phrase for "to start over" is aloittaa alusta.

Why do we use aloittaa here instead of alkaa for "to start"?

Aloittaa is used when a person or agent actively starts something (it is a transitive verb). Alkaa is typically used when things start on their own, like a movie, a class, or the rain (intransitive). Since the entrepreneur is actively initiating the action here, we use aloittaa.

Does the verb yrittää always require the next verb to be in its dictionary form?

Yes! When you want to say you "try to do" something, yrittää is followed by the basic dictionary form (first infinitive) of the next verb. That is why we use the basic form aloittaa in this sentence.