Breakdown of Sitä mukaa kun louhimme kuilua, rakennamme tukipilareita.
rakentaa
to build
sitä mukaa kun
as / in proportion as (at the same rate)
louhia
to excavate / to quarry
kuilu
shaft / abyss
Questions & Answers about Sitä mukaa kun louhimme kuilua, rakennamme tukipilareita.
How does the phrase sitä mukaa kun work, and what does it emphasize?
The phrase translates to 'in proportion as' or simply 'as'. It is a fixed subordinate conjunction used to emphasize that two ongoing actions progress at the exact same rate. Here, it shows that the building of the pillars happens continuously alongside the excavating of the shaft.
Why are the objects kuilua (the shaft) and tukipilareita (support pillars) both in the partitive case?
The partitive case is used here because both actions are ongoing and incomplete. The phrase sitä mukaa kun inherently focuses on continuous progress, which means the objects of the verbs involved will almost always take the partitive case rather than appearing as total objects.
Where does the word mukaa come from in this phrase?
It is a historical, shortened form of the postposition mukaan (according to / along with). In modern Finnish, sitä mukaa kun is treated as a fixed grammatical chunk, so you do not need to decline it or worry about the missing final 'n'.
Is the verb louhia (to excavate) only used for physical mining?
Primarily yes, it means to mine, quarry, or excavate rock. However, it is also the standard verb for digital mining. For example, 'data mining' is tiedonlouhinta and mining cryptocurrency is kryptovaluutan louhinta.