Questions & Answers about En kuvitellut tätä menestystä.
Why are tätä and menestystä in the partitive case here?
The main reason is that this is a negative sentence (en kuvitellut), and the object of a negative sentence is always in the partitive case. It is also worth noting that kuvitella (to imagine) is a verb of thought or feeling, similar to the verb luulla (to think/suppose) from this lesson. These verbs often take a partitive object even in affirmative sentences, because an imagined or supposed concept is abstract and incomplete.
What is the dictionary form of menestystä, and how is its partitive formed?
The dictionary form is menestys (success), which is a noun derived from the verb menestyä (to succeed). For nouns ending in -us/-ys, the partitive case is formed by adding -ta/-tä directly to the basic form. Here, menestys + tä merges slightly to become menestystä.
How is the negative past tense formed in en kuvitellut?
To say you didn't do something in the past, you use the conjugated negative verb (here, en for 'I') plus the past participle (the -nut/-nyt or -lut/-lyt form) of the main verb. Kuvitella is a type 3 verb. You find the past participle by taking the consonant stem kuvitel- and adding -lut, giving us kuvitellut.
Is the verb kuvitella (to imagine) related to the word kuva (picture)?
Yes! Finnish frequently builds abstract verbs from basic nouns. Kuva means a picture or image. By adding the verb-building suffix -itella, which often creates verbs about doing something continuously, loosely, or purely in one's mind, we get kuvitella: literally to picture something in your mind.
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