Breakdown of Fanit itkivät, kun mestari voitti finaalin.
itkeä
to cry
kun
when (conjunction)
voittaa
to win
fani
fan
mestari
champion
finaali
final (sports, competition)
Questions & Answers about Fanit itkivät, kun mestari voitti finaalin.
Why does the object finaalin end in -n instead of being in the partitive case (finaalia)?
The verb voitti describes a completed action. In Finnish, when an action is fully completed and affects the entire object, a singular object takes the genitive-like accusative ending -n. If you used the partitive form finaalia, it would mean the champion was in the process of winning the final, rather than having already secured the victory.
How is the past tense verb itkivät formed from the dictionary form itkeä?
For Type 1 verbs like itkeä, the final -e- of the stem drops out before the past tense marker -i. The strong stem itke- becomes itki-, and then we add the third-person plural personal ending -vät to get itkivät.
Why doesn't the verb voittaa undergo consonant gradation in the form voitti?
It stays in the strong grade because it is in the third-person singular. In Finnish, the third-person singular (he/she/it) always uses the strong grade in both the present and past tenses. The double -tt- remains intact, and the final stem vowel -a simply changes to the past tense -i, giving us voitti.
How would we change the first clause to "Let's cry!" using the formal first-person plural imperative from this lesson?
You would use the strong vowel stem of the verb itkeä, which is itke-, and add the imperative suffix -käämme. This gives you Itkekäämme! We use the front-vowel version of the suffix (-käämme instead of -kaamme) because itkeä contains front vowels.
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