Breakdown of Kunnostitko sen senkin, jollaisesta me haaveilimme?
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
me
we
haaveilla
to dream
jollainen
the kind of which
kunnostaa
to restore (to repair, refurbish)
senkki
sideboard
Questions & Answers about Kunnostitko sen senkin, jollaisesta me haaveilimme?
Why is the relative adjective jollainen in the elative case (jollaisesta) here?
The case is dictated by the verb haaveilla (to dream). In Finnish, when you dream about something, the object of the dream must take the elative case (-sta/-stä). Since the speaker dreamed about "the kind of" sideboard, jollainen takes the elative ending and becomes jollaisesta.
Is the word senkin just the pronoun sen (that) with the -kin (also/too) clitic attached?
It looks exactly like it, but no! In this sentence, it is the accusative form of the noun senkki, which means a sideboard or dresser. The sentence is talking about "that sideboard" (se senkki). Because it is the total object of the verb, both the pronoun and the noun take the accusative -n ending, giving us the repetitive-looking phrase sen senkin.
What is the difference in meaning if I used the basic relative pronoun josta instead of jollaisesta?
Using josta (the elative of joka) would mean "the sideboard which we dreamed about" — implying the person restored the exact, specific physical piece of furniture from their dreams. Using jollaisesta (from jollainen) means they restored a sideboard of the same kind or style as the one they dreamed about.
Why is the object sen senkin in the accusative case rather than the partitive?
The accusative case (marked by the -n ending) shows that the action is viewed as a completed, whole process. Asking kunnostitko with an accusative object implies "did you completely finish restoring it?". If you wanted to ask if the person spent some time working on it (an incomplete action), you would use the partitive: Kunnostitko sitä senkkiä?
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