Breakdown of Johtaja on myötätuntoinen uudelle alaiselle.
olla
to be
uusi
new
johtaja
the director
myötätuntoinen
compassionate
alainen
the subordinate
Questions & Answers about Johtaja on myötätuntoinen uudelle alaiselle.
Why is uudelle alaiselle in the allative case (-lle)?
Adjectives describing an interpersonal attitude or emotion directed at someone, such as myötätuntoinen (compassionate), ystävällinen (friendly), or vihainen (angry), usually require the target to be in the allative case. It translates roughly to being compassionate 'to' or 'onto' the subordinate.
Could I use the partitive case plus the postposition kohtaan instead?
Yes, you can! Saying on myötätuntoinen uutta alaista kohtaan (is compassionate towards the new subordinate) is also grammatically correct. However, using the allative case directly is a very natural, standard rection for these attitude adjectives in Finnish.
How is the adjective myötätuntoinen constructed?
It is built from the noun myötätunto (compassion or sympathy), which literally means 'with-feeling' (myötä meaning with or along, and tunto meaning feeling or sense). The suffix -inen turns this noun into an adjective, just like how ilo (joy) becomes iloinen (joyful).
What is the base form of alaiselle, and why does it change this way?
The base form is alainen (subordinate), which derives from the root ala- (under or lower). As a refresher: Finnish words ending in -nen change their ending to -se- when forming the stem for most grammatical cases. Therefore, alainen becomes alaise-, and then we add the allative ending -lle.
Why does the adjective uusi become uudelle here?
Adjectives must agree in case with the noun they modify. The word uusi (new) belongs to an older group of words ending in -si that change to -de- in their consonant stem. The stem becomes uude-, and adding the -lle ending gives us uudelle to perfectly match alaiselle.
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