Breakdown of Eikö peilikuvasi vääristynyt, ikään kuin joku katselisi sinua?
sinä
you
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
joku
somebody, someone
katsella
to look around, to watch
Questions & Answers about Eikö peilikuvasi vääristynyt, ikään kuin joku katselisi sinua?
Why is the verb katselisi in the conditional mood here?
The conjunction ikään kuin means 'as if' or 'as though.' Because it introduces a hypothetical or imaginary situation (no one is actually watching), the verb that follows it must be in the conditional mood, which is marked by -isi-.
Why is the verb vääristynyt a participle instead of a regular past tense verb like vääristyi?
This is a negative past tense question. In Finnish, the negative past is formed using the negative verb (here, Eikö) plus the active past participle (the -nut/-nyt form). If it were a positive statement, it would be the regular past tense: Peilikuvasi vääristyi (Your reflection distorted).
Could I use the verb vääristää instead of vääristyä (vääristynyt) here?
No, because they have different roles. Vääristää is transitive, meaning 'to distort something else.' Vääristyä is intransitive, meaning 'to become distorted.' Since the reflection is changing state rather than acting on another object, we need the -yä verb.
Why is the pronoun sinua in the partitive case?
The verb katsella (to watch, to view) expresses a continuous or ongoing action. Verbs that describe continuous, open-ended actions always take their object in the partitive case.