Word
Varoitin tyttöstä tuosta koirasta.
Meaning
I warned the little girl about that dog.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about Varoitin tyttöstä tuosta koirasta.
Wait, doesn't tyttöstä mean 'out of the girl' (the elative case of tyttö)?
It does look exactly like it! However, in this sentence, tyttöstä is actually the partitive case of the diminutive noun tyttönen (little girl). Words ending in -nen have a partitive ending in -sta or -stä. Because the verb varoittaa (to warn) requires its object to be in the partitive case, context tells us this is the partitive of tyttönen, not the elative of tyttö.
How would you say this if it were just 'the girl' instead of 'the little girl'?
You would say: Varoitin tyttöä tuosta koirasta. The partitive of tyttö is tyttöä. Seeing the difference here helps show why tyttöstä in our example sentence has to be the diminutive form.
Why are tuo and koira in the elative case (tuosta koirasta)?
The verb varoittaa (to warn) dictates the cases in this sentence. The rule is: varoittaa jotakuta jostakin (to warn someone about something). The person being warned takes the partitive case, and the source of the danger takes the elative case (here, tuosta koirasta).
What is the stem of tyttönen if I need to put it in other cases?