Breakdown of Tämä monilahjakkuus teki suuren läpimurtonsa vasta eilen.
tämä
this
tehdä
to do
eilen
yesterday
suuri
large, great
vasta
not until, only just
monilahjakkuus
multitalent
läpimurto
breakthrough
Questions & Answers about Tämä monilahjakkuus teki suuren läpimurtonsa vasta eilen.
Why is suuren in the genitive case, but läpimurtonsa doesn't seem to have a genitive -n?
The object of the verb teki needs to be in the genitive case. Normally this would be suuren läpimurron. However, when a noun takes a possessive suffix like -nsa, it drops its genitive -n. The adjective suuren doesn't take a possessive suffix, so it keeps its -n ending, revealing the true case of the phrase. Notice also that without the genitive -n, the noun uses its strong grade stem (läpimurto-) before the suffix, unlike the standalone genitive läpimurron.
Why does the sentence use vasta for 'only' instead of vain?
When talking about time, vasta means 'only' in the sense of 'not until' or 'as late as'. It implies the event happened later than one might expect. If you used vain eilen, it would restrict the time rather than emphasize the expectation, meaning 'only yesterday, and at no other time'.
How does the word monilahjakkuus break down, and how do we know it means 'her' breakthrough?
It combines moni (many/multi) and lahjakkuus (talent/giftedness). The suffix -uus turns the adjective lahjakas (talented) into an abstract noun. As for 'her', Finnish possessive suffixes like -nsa do not specify gender. The English translation uses 'her' here for natural flow, but based purely on the isolated Finnish sentence, it could equally mean 'his' or 'their' great breakthrough.
This lesson covers ei ainoastaan ... vaan myös. How could we use that here to say the breakthrough happened not only yesterday, but also today?
You would frame the time phrases with the conjunctions: ...teki suuren läpimurtonsa ei ainoastaan eilen vaan myös tänään. The rule for these correlative conjunctions is that they must connect grammatically parallel structures, which in this case are the two time adverbs eilen and tänään.
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