Breakdown of Vien kengät suutarille huollettavaksi, koska korko ja kengännauha ovat rikki.
olla
to be
ja
and
koska
because
viedä
to take (away, somewhere) / to take (time), require
kenkä
the shoe
rikki
broken
suutari
cobbler
korko
the heel
huoltaa
to service
kengännauha
the shoelace
Questions & Answers about Vien kengät suutarille huollettavaksi, koska korko ja kengännauha ovat rikki.
How does the translative ending -ksi change the meaning of huollettava in this sentence?
The word huollettava is the passive present participle, meaning "that which is to be maintained". Adding the translative ending -ksi expresses a change of state or a purpose. Together, huollettavaksi means "for the purpose of being maintained" or "to be maintained". It tells us why you are taking the shoes to the cobbler.
Since kengät (shoes) is plural, shouldn't the participle also be plural, as in huollettaviksi?
That is a great observation! Strictly speaking, it can be plural (huollettaviksi) to agree with kengät. However, when using this participle to show the purpose of an action (like taking something somewhere to be fixed or washed), Finnish speakers very commonly leave it in the singular (huollettavaksi) regardless of the object's number. Both are correct and natural here.
Why is the cobbler in the allative case (suutarille) instead of the illative case (suutariin)?
The word suutari refers to a person (the cobbler) rather than a physical location or building. In Finnish, when a physical transfer is directed toward a person, you typically use the allative case (-lle, "to/onto"). If the sentence instead mentioned a shoe repair shop (suutarinliike), you would use the illative (suutarinliikkeeseen).
The heel and shoelace are both broken. Why isn't rikki in a plural form to match the multiple items?
The word rikki is a bit special: it is an uninflected adverb of state rather than a standard adjective. This means it never changes its form, regardless of whether the subject is singular or plural. If you wanted to use a regular inflecting adjective, you could say that they ovat rikkinäisiä.
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