Breakdown of Hän hotki koko lautasellisen maistamatta ruokaa ollenkaan.
hän
he / she
ruoka
food
koko
whole
maistaa
to taste
ollenkaan
at all
hotkia
to wolf down
lautasellinen
plateful
Questions & Answers about Hän hotki koko lautasellisen maistamatta ruokaa ollenkaan.
Since there is no negative verb like ei, why can we use the word ollenkaan (at all)?
The word ollenkaan requires a negative context, which is usually provided by a negative verb. However, the ending -matta in maistamatta translates to "without" and carries an inherent negative meaning. This morphological negation is strong enough to trigger the use of ollenkaan.
Why is lautasellisen in the genitive-looking accusative case instead of the partitive?
The verb hotkia (to wolf down, to gobble) describes a completed action here—he finished the entire plateful. Because it is a completed, total action, the object takes the singular accusative case, which ends in -n. Notice that the word koko (entire) is indeclinable, so it doesn't change to match it!
How exactly is the form maistamatta built?
This is the abessive form of the third infinitive, which translates to "without doing" an action. You form it by taking the strong inflectional stem of a verb—in this case, maistaa (to taste)—and adding the ending -matta (or -mättä depending on vowel harmony).
Why is ruokaa in the partitive case in this sentence?
Ruokaa acts as the object of the action "tasting". The verb maistaa is a partitive verb, meaning its object must take the partitive case. Verbs keep their specific object rules (rections) even when they are turned into infinitive structures like maistamatta.
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