Breakdown of Voitko kertoa, miksi lasten tekee mieli napostella ja juoda limonadia?
ja
and
miksi
why
lapsi
child
juoda
to drink
tehdä
to do
kertoa
to tell
voida
can, to be able to
mieli
mind / opinion (mind, mood)
napostella
to snack
limonadi
soda
Questions & Answers about Voitko kertoa, miksi lasten tekee mieli napostella ja juoda limonadia?
Why is the word for "children" in the genitive plural (lasten) instead of the nominative (lapset)?
This sentence uses the tekee mieli (feels like / desires) structure. In Finnish, the person who feels this type of physical or mental desire is called the "experiencer" and must always be in the genitive case. Since we are talking about plural children, we use the genitive plural lasten.
Since there are multiple children, why is the verb tekee in the singular form rather than the plural tekevät?
The tekee mieli construction is an impersonal expression. This means the verb tehdä is essentially frozen in the third-person singular form (tekee) and never conjugates to match the person feeling the desire. Even though the experiencer is plural (lasten), the verb remains singular.
If I want to say they feel like doing two things (snacking and drinking), do I need to repeat tekee mieli?
No, you don't need to repeat it. You can simply list the actions in their basic dictionary form (1st infinitive) joined by ja (and). Here, napostella (to snack) and juoda (to drink) both naturally attach to the single lasten tekee mieli phrase.
Does the tekee mieli structure change how the object (limonadia) is handled?
No, the case of limonadia is determined entirely by the verb acting on it, which is juoda (to drink). Because soda is an uncountable mass noun, its object takes the partitive case (limonadia). The tekee mieli structure only dictates the case of the experiencer (lasten) and forces the action verbs into the infinitive.
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