Breakdown of Voitko vilkaista tätä sähköpostia?
tämä
this
voida
can, to be able to
sähköposti
email
vilkaista
to glance
Questions & Answers about Voitko vilkaista tätä sähköpostia?
Why is sähköpostia in the partitive case here?
Verbs related to looking, watching, or glancing, like katsoa and vilkaista, take a partitive object. Even though glancing is a quick, bounded action, you aren't "completing" or physically consuming the email in a grammatical sense, so it requires the partitive rather than a total object.
Does voida take the same verb form as sattua from our current lesson?
Yes! Just like sattua (to happen to do something), the modal verb voida (can / to be able to) directly governs the first infinitive. That is why we simply use the basic dictionary form vilkaista right after it.
What does the ending -aista in vilkaista tell us about the verb?
It marks a momentary verb. The -aista or -äistä suffix indicates that an action is quick, sudden, or done just once. You will see this useful pattern in other verbs too, such as kysyä (to ask) becoming kysäistä (to ask quickly).
Would it be better to use voisitko instead of voitko?
It depends on the situation. Voitko (can you) is perfectly grammatically correct and common in casual contexts. However, using the conditional form voisitko (could you) is much more polite and is usually the preferred choice in a professional environment when asking someone for a favor.
Learn Voitko vilkaista tätä sähköpostia and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free