Breakdown of Mä olin vähällä pudottaa mun kännykän, ku toi vuoristorata pelästytti mua tosi paljon.
tuo
that
minä
I
paljon
a lot
kun
when (conjunction)
todella
really (very, intensifier)
kännykkä
the cellphone
pudottaa
to drop
vuoristorata
rollercoaster
olla vähällä
to almost do
pelästyttää
to scare (suddenly)
Questions & Answers about Mä olin vähällä pudottaa mun kännykän, ku toi vuoristorata pelästytti mua tosi paljon.
How does the phrase olin vähällä pudottaa translate to 'I almost dropped'?
The structure olla vähällä literally means 'to be with little'. When combined with a first infinitive like pudottaa (to drop), it indicates that an action was very close to happening but didn't. You can think of it as 'I was a little short of dropping'.
Since the phone wasn't actually dropped, why is the object mun kännykän in the genitive case instead of the partitive?
Even though the action didn't happen, the sentence follows the normal object rules for a completed action. Because dropping the phone would have been a complete action, it takes a total object (mun kännykän). The olla vähällä + infinitive structure governs the object as if the action were going to be fully completed.
Why is mua in the partitive case after pelästytti?
The verb pelästyttää means 'to frighten' or 'to scare someone'. In Finnish, verbs that describe causing an emotion almost always take a partitive object, so 'scared me' becomes pelästytti mua.
What is the difference between pelästyttää and pelästyä?
pelästyttää is a transitive verb meaning 'to scare someone', which is why the rollercoaster does it to you here. pelästyä is an intransitive verb meaning 'to get scared'. You could rephrase the end of the sentence to focus on your own feeling instead: ku mä pelästyin tosi paljon (when I got really scared).
There are several spoken language words here. What are their standard written forms?
This sentence is very colloquial. mä is minä (I), mun is minun (my), ku is kun (when/because), toi is tuo (that), and mua is minua (me).
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