Word
Vaikka maasto on vaikea, maanmittari kartoittaa alueen viidenkymmenen metrin päästä.
Meaning
Although the terrain is difficult, the land surveyor surveys the area from fifty meters away.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Vaikka maasto on vaikea, maanmittari kartoittaa alueen viidenkymmenen metrin päästä.
olla
to be
vaikea
difficult / hard
viisikymmentä
fifty
alue
the area
Questions & Answers about Vaikka maasto on vaikea, maanmittari kartoittaa alueen viidenkymmenen metrin päästä.
Why does this sentence use päästä instead of päässä?
The postposition päästä expresses movement or an action originating from a distance. Even though the surveyor is physically standing still, their gaze and measurement are projecting from that 50-meter distance toward the target. If they were just standing there doing an unrelated action, you would use the static päässä.
Why are all the parts of the distance phrase in the genitive case (viidenkymmenen metrin)?
The postpositions päässä and päästä require the entire measurement phrase to be in the genitive case. In Finnish, every part of a compound number must decline. So the base number viisikymmentä (fifty) becomes viiden (genitive of viisi) plus kymmenen (genitive of kymmenen), followed by the genitive noun metrin.
Why is the object alueen in the genitive case and not the partitive?
The verb kartoittaa (to survey or to map) is being used here for a bounded action that will be seen through to completion. The surveyor is mapping the entire area, not just an undefined part of it. Because the action encompasses the whole object, it takes the total object case, which looks like the genitive for a singular noun.
How is the word maanmittari (land surveyor) formed?