Breakdown of Stressi teki hänet vihaiseksi asiakkaille.
hän
he / she
vihainen
angry
tehdä
to do
asiakas
the customer
stressi
stress
Questions & Answers about Stressi teki hänet vihaiseksi asiakkaille.
Why is 'at the customers' translated with the allative case asiakkaille instead of using a postposition like kohtaan?
In Finnish, adjectives that describe an attitude or behavior toward someone (like vihainen for 'angry' or ystävällinen for 'friendly') naturally take the allative case (-lle). While you could grammatically say asiakkaita kohtaan (towards the customers), the allative is the standard rection for these interpersonal adjectives.
Why is vihainen in the translative case (vihaiseksi)?
The translative case (-ksi) expresses a change of state or becoming something. When you use the verb tehdä (to make) to mean 'making someone [adjective]', the adjective must be in the translative case to show the end result of that change.
Emotions often trigger the partitive case. Why is the object hänet in the accusative here instead of the partitive häntä?
While verbs expressing an emotion (like vihata, 'to hate') do take a partitive object, the main verb affecting the object here is tehdä (to make). The action of making him angry was successfully completed, requiring a total object. Personal pronouns like hän use their special -t accusative form (hänet) for total objects.
What is the base form of asiakkaille, and why does it have a double -kk-?
The base nominative word is asiakas (customer). Words ending in -kas undergo inverse consonant gradation. When building the plural stem, the weak grade (a single k) becomes strong (double kk), giving the stem asiakka-. Then the plural marker -i- and allative ending -lle are added.
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