Questions & Answers about Olin vähällä pudottaa lompakkoni.
How does the structure olla vähällä work in this sentence?
The phrase olla vähällä means "to almost do something" or "to be on the verge of doing something". It is always followed by a verb in its 1st infinitive (the dictionary form), which is pudottaa here. Literally, it translates to something like "I was at a little to drop".
Could I just say Melkein pudotin lompakkoni instead?
Yes, that is completely correct and means the same thing. However, using olla vähällä + 1st infinitive is a very natural and common idiom in Finnish that strongly emphasizes how close the event came to happening. Notice that with melkein, the main verb conjugates (pudotin), but with olla vähällä, only the verb olla conjugates (olin) while the action verb stays in the infinitive.
Why doesn't the object lompakkoni have an -n at the end if it's a complete action?
You are right that the total object for a complete action normally takes the genitive-accusative -n ending, which would make it lompakon. However, there is a rule in Finnish: when you attach a possessive suffix like -ni (my) to a word in the genitive case, the -n disappears. Therefore, lompakon + -ni simply becomes lompakkoni.
I often mix up pudottaa and pudota. Why is it pudottaa here?
Pudottaa is a transitive verb, meaning "to drop (something)". You use it when a person or thing is causing an object to fall, which is why it takes the object lompakkoni. Pudota is an intransitive verb meaning "to fall" on its own. If you wanted to use pudota, you would have to make the wallet the subject: Lompakkoni oli vähällä pudota (My wallet almost fell).
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