Breakdown of Mekaanikko on raivoissaan, koska moottoriurheilu on kallista.
olla
to be
kallis
expensive
koska
because
moottoriurheilu
motorsport
mekaanikko
mechanic
raivoissaan
furious (in a rage)
Questions & Answers about Mekaanikko on raivoissaan, koska moottoriurheilu on kallista.
How exactly does the word raivoissaan translate to "furious" here?
This is a state adverbial. It is built from the noun raivo (rage). To express being in a state of rage, Finnish puts the word into the plural inessive case (raivoissa-, meaning "in the rages") and adds a possessive suffix (-an). So, it literally translates to "in his rages".
If the subject changes, does raivoissaan change too?
Yes! Because this state expression uses a possessive suffix, it must match the subject. If you wanted to say "I am furious," you would change the 3rd person suffix (-an) to the 1st person suffix (-ni) and say Olen raivoissani. "We are furious" would be Olemme raivoissamme.
Could I write raivoissansa instead of raivoissaan?
Yes, you could. For the third-person possessive suffix, you can often use either -nsa (or -nsä) or double the final vowel and add -n. Both raivoissaan and raivoissansa are grammatically correct and mean the exact same thing, but raivoissaan is much more common in everyday use.
Why is kallista in the partitive case rather than the basic form kallis?
When you use the verb olla (to be) to describe a noun, the adjective takes the partitive case if the noun is uncountable or an abstract concept. Here, moottoriurheilu (motorsport) is treated as a general, abstract concept, so the describing adjective becomes kallista.
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