Breakdown of On turhauttavaa, kun ovela rotta pääsee karkuun.
olla
to be
päästä
to get to, to reach
kun
when (conjunction)
rotta
rat
ovela
cunning
turhauttava
frustrating
karkuun
away (escaping)
Questions & Answers about On turhauttavaa, kun ovela rotta pääsee karkuun.
Why is turhauttavaa in the partitive case here instead of the nominative turhauttava?
When a sentence starts with on and describes a general, abstract situation or feeling (where English uses the dummy subject "it"), the adjective must be in the partitive case. Because you are describing the abstract situation of the rat escaping, you use the partitive turhauttavaa.
How does the phrase pääsee karkuun work literally?
The verb päästä generally means "to manage to get" or "to reach a state". The word karkuun is the illative (into) case of the noun karku (escape or flight). So literally, the rat "gets into an escape". This is the most common Finnish phrase for "gets away".
Could I use että instead of kun in this sentence?
Yes, you could say On turhauttavaa, että... which means "It is frustrating that...". However, using kun (when) is very natural in Finnish when reacting to a recurring event or a specific circumstance that triggers an emotion.
How could I apply this lesson's vaikka kuinka + conditional structure to talk about this cunning rat?
If you wanted to say "No matter how cunning the rat is, it wouldn't get away", you would say: Vaikka rotta olisi kuinka ovela, se ei pääsisi karkuun. Notice that the conditional mood (olisi, pääsisi) is required to express the hypothetical nature of the concession.
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