Breakdown of He sietävät äänikirjojen kuuntelemista, mutta inhoavat joogaamista.
mutta
but
he
they
kuunnella
to listen to
inhota
to loathe
äänikirja
audiobook
sietää
to tolerate
joogata
to do yoga
Questions & Answers about He sietävät äänikirjojen kuuntelemista, mutta inhoavat joogaamista.
Why do we use the partitive forms kuuntelemista and joogaamista here?
The main verbs in this sentence, sietää (to tolerate) and inhota (to loathe), are emotion verbs. Verbs that express a feeling, attitude, or sustained activity regarding another action generally require that second action to be in the 4th infinitive partitive form (-mista or -mistä). Here, the base verbal nouns kuunteleminen and joogaaminen take the partitive ending to act as the objects of those feelings.
Why is äänikirjojen (audiobooks) in the genitive case instead of the partitive case, since you usually "listen to" things in the partitive?
You're right that the verb kuunnella normally takes a partitive object. However, when a verb is transformed into a noun (the 4th infinitive, kuunteleminen), it behaves like a standard noun. In Finnish, the object of a verbal noun is expressed using the genitive case, grammatically similar to saying "the listening of audiobooks" in English. Therefore, it becomes the genitive plural äänikirjojen.
Why doesn't the verb sietää undergo consonant gradation in the "they" form (sietävät)?
The verb sietää is a Type 1 verb with a t -> d consonant gradation (for example, minä siedän). The weak grade (d) is triggered when a personal ending closes the syllable. However, the third-person plural ending -vat leaves the preceding syllable open (sie-tä-vät), so the consonant remains in its strong form (t).
How is the word joogaamista formed? Is it originally a verb or a noun?
It is a noun formed from a verb, which was itself formed from a noun! It starts with the loan word jooga (yoga), which becomes the Type 4 verb joogata (to do yoga). That verb is then turned into the 4th infinitive noun joogaaminen (doing yoga) and finally put into the partitive case (joogaamista) because it is the object of the verb inhota.
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