Breakdown of Hänen tekee mieli napostella roskaruokaa.
hän
he / she
tehdä
to do
mieli
mind / opinion (mind, mood)
napostella
to snack
roskaruoka
junk food
Questions & Answers about Hänen tekee mieli napostella roskaruokaa.
Why is the pronoun Hänen in the genitive case instead of the nominative Hän?
This is the core rule of the 'tekee mieli' construction. The person who 'feels like' doing something acts as an experiencer and must be in the genitive case. Structurally, you can think of it as meaning 'It makes his mind [crave]...'
If the sentence were 'We feel like snacking', would the verb tekee change to match 'we'?
No. In this construction, the verb phrase tekee mieli is fixed in the third-person singular. It never conjugates to match the experiencer. So, 'We feel like snacking' would simply be Meidän tekee mieli napostella.
What verb form is required after tekee mieli?
When you feel like doing an action, the verb that follows tekee mieli must be in the 1st infinitive (the standard dictionary form). Here, that is napostella (to snack).
Is roskaruokaa in the partitive case because of the tekee mieli structure?
No, it is in the partitive case because of the verb napostella and the type of noun it is. Napostella (to snack/nibble) is an ongoing, irresultative action, which requires a partitive object. Furthermore, roskaruoka (junk food) acts as an uncountable mass noun here.
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