Breakdown of Ohjaaja ei ainoastaan sanoita kappaleita, vaan hän luo myös koko koreografian.
hän
he / she
myös
also
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
koko
whole
ohjaaja
instructor / director
vaan
but rather (after a negative)
luoda
to create
kappale
track / song / piece (item, music track)
ainoastaan
only (solely, exclusively)
sanoittaa
to write lyrics
koreografia
choreography
Questions & Answers about Ohjaaja ei ainoastaan sanoita kappaleita, vaan hän luo myös koko koreografian.
Why is the second part split up as vaan hän luo myös instead of keeping vaan myös together?
When linking full clauses that have their own subjects and verbs, Finnish prefers to put the subject and verb between vaan (but) and myös (also). If you were just linking two nouns, they would stay together, as in vaan myös koreografian (but also the choreography). Because the second clause re-introduces the subject (hän) and a new verb (luo), myös gets pushed after the verb.
Why is kappaleita in the partitive case, but koreografian is in the genitive-accusative?
This comes down to the result of the actions. Kappaleita is plural partitive because writing lyrics for 'songs' is viewed here as an indefinite plural quantity. However, creating 'the whole choreography' (koko koreografian) is a completed action with a single total object, so it takes the genitive-looking accusative case. The indeclinable word koko (whole) strongly signals a total object.
What is the base form of sanoita, and how does it relate to the negative verb ei?
The base form is sanoittaa (to write lyrics). Because it follows the negative verb ei in the phrase ei ainoastaan, it must be in the connegative form. You find this by taking the 'minä' form (sanoitan) and dropping the -n, which gives you sanoita. Notice the consonant gradation from 'tt' to 't'.
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