Breakdown of Tämä virtuoosi ei ainoastaan häikäise yleisöä, vaan myös yllättää asiantuntijat.
tämä
this
myös
also
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
asiantuntija
expert
yleisö
the audience
yllättää
to surprise
vaan
but rather (after a negative)
ainoastaan
only (solely, exclusively)
virtuoosi
virtuoso
häikäistä
to dazzle
Questions & Answers about Tämä virtuoosi ei ainoastaan häikäise yleisöä, vaan myös yllättää asiantuntijat.
Why is yleisöä in the partitive case, while asiantuntijat is in the nominative plural?
The first half of the sentence is grammatically negative due to ei. In Finnish, objects of negative sentences must always be in the partitive case, giving us yleisöä. The second half after vaan myös is affirmative, so the object rules reset. Since surprising the experts is a completed action, we use the normal rule for total objects: plural total objects take the nominative plural form, resulting in asiantuntijat.
Why is the first verb häikäise missing a personal ending, but yllättää has one?
The first verb belongs to the clause with the negative verb ei, so it must be in the connegative form (the verb stem without personal endings). However, vaan myös introduces an affirmative clause, meaning the negation from the first half no longer applies. Because of this, yllättää is conjugated normally in the third-person singular to match the subject, Tämä virtuoosi.
Could I say mutta myös instead of vaan myös here?
No, you must use vaan. In Finnish, when you have a negative statement followed by a directly contrasting affirmative one (meaning "not X, but rather Y"), you use vaan. Mutta is used when the second clause adds information without directly replacing a negated element. Because of this, the structure for "not only... but also" is strictly fixed as ei ainoastaan ... vaan myös.
What is the infinitive form of the verb häikäise?
The infinitive is häikäistä (to dazzle or to blind). It is a Type 3 verb. To find the connegative form used in this sentence, you take the first-person singular present tense (häikäisen) and drop the -n, which gives you häikäise.
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