Breakdown of Hän tuntee itsensä sekä riittämättömäksi että arvottomaksi.
hän
he / she
että
that (conjunction)
itse
self, oneself
sekä
both
tuntea
to feel (experience a sensation or emotion)
riittämätön
inadequate
arvoton
worthless
Questions & Answers about Hän tuntee itsensä sekä riittämättömäksi että arvottomaksi.
Why are the adjectives riittämättömäksi and arvottomaksi in the translative case ending in -ksi?
This is the core of the tuntea itsensä (to feel oneself) structure. When you describe how you feel using this verb phrase, the adjective describing the feeling must be in the translative case. Even though the translative often implies a change or becoming something, with this specific verb it simply expresses the state or quality you perceive yourself to have.
Could I use the tuntuu structure instead to say this?
Yes, but the grammar changes entirely! A very common B2 trap is mixing them up. If you use the verb tuntua, the person feeling it takes the elative -stä ending (Hänestä tuntuu...) and the adjective takes the ablative -lta/-ltä ending (...riittämättömältä ja arvottomalta). Because this sentence uses tuntea (an active verb meaning to feel or sense), it strictly requires the reflexive pronoun itsensä as the object and the translative case for the adjectives.
How do the base words of riittämättömäksi and arvottomaksi break down?
Both adjectives are built using the suffix -ton/-tön, which means 'without' or '-less'. Arvoton comes from the noun arvo (value) plus -ton, meaning 'worthless'. Riittämätön comes from the verb riittää (to be enough) in its negative participle form, literally meaning 'un-sufficing' or 'inadequate'.
How does the sekä ... että ... conjunction affect the grammar of the sentence?
In Finnish, the paired conjunction sekä ... että ... works exactly like 'both ... and ...' in English. A key grammatical rule to remember is that the words following each part must match cases. Since the first feeling is in the translative case (riittämättömäksi), the second one must also be in the translative case (arvottomaksi).
Why is the reflexive pronoun exactly itsensä here?
Itse is the base word for 'self', but here it acts as the direct object of the verb tuntee. For a third-person subject (hän), the reflexive object takes the basic form itse plus the third-person possessive suffix -nsä, resulting in itsensä ('himself' or 'herself').
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