Breakdown of Meidän on määrä niittää heinä ennen hallaa.
olla
to be
me
we
ennen
before
määrä
amount
niittää
to reap, to mow
heinä
hay
halla
frost
Questions & Answers about Meidän on määrä niittää heinä ennen hallaa.
Why is "we" in the genitive case (meidän) instead of the nominative (me)?
This sentence uses the on määrä (is scheduled to / is supposed to) structure. Just like with necessity verbs (like täytyy), the person performing the action is placed in the genitive case, and the main verb (on) stays in the third-person singular regardless of who is doing the action.
How does the meaning of on määrä differ from necessity verbs like pitää or täytyy?
While pitää and täytyy mean you "must" or "have to" do something, on määrä is used specifically for scheduled intentions, agreements, or external expectations. It means something is "supposed to" or "scheduled to" happen according to a prior plan.
Why is the object heinä (hay) in the nominative case instead of the genitive-accusative (heinän)?
Because the on määrä construction functions like a necessity structure, it triggers the special necessity object rule: a total object (meaning the action will be completely finished) takes the nominative case rather than the genitive. If the mowing were meant to be an incomplete or ongoing process, you would use the partitive case (heinää).
Why does halla (frost) end in an extra -a here?
The word ennen (before) is one of the relatively few prepositions in Finnish. Prepositions almost always require the word that follows them to be in the partitive case, which is why halla becomes hallaa.
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