Breakdown of He pyrkivät korkeaan palkkatasoon tekemällä ylitöitä.
he
they
tehdä
to do
korkea
high, tall
ylityö
the overtime
Questions & Answers about He pyrkivät korkeaan palkkatasoon tekemällä ylitöitä.
Why is korkeaan palkkatasoon in the illative case instead of the partitive?
The verb pyrkiä (to strive for, to aim at) is a goal-oriented verb. In Finnish, verbs expressing a focus toward a goal or resolution usually require their target to be in the illative case. Because of case agreement, both the adjective korkea and the noun palkkataso take the illative endings, becoming korkeaan palkkatasoon.
How does the word tekemällä translate to 'by doing'?
This is the third infinitive (the -ma or -mä form) of the verb tehdä, put into the adessive case (-llä). Using the adessive case with the third infinitive is the standard Finnish way to express how or by what means an action is accomplished.
Why is the word for overtime, ylitöitä, in the plural partitive?
In Finnish, working overtime in a general sense is usually expressed in the plural (ylityöt). Because doing overtime here is an open-ended action rather than a single completed task, it takes the partitive plural form ylitöitä as the object of tekemällä.
Besides striving for a salary, in what other common situations would I use pyrkiä with the illative case?