Word
Mies tunkeutui naapurinsa taloon.
Meaning
The man intruded into his neighbor's house.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Mies tunkeutui naapurinsa taloon.
Why is there no hänen before naapurinsa?
Because the neighbor belongs to the subject of the sentence, Mies. When a third-person possessor is the same as the subject, Finnish omits the pronoun hänen and simply attaches the third-person possessive suffix -nsa to the noun. If you included hänen, it would imply he intruded into some other man's neighbor's house.
The English translation says "neighbor's", which requires the genitive case. Where is the genitive -n in naapurinsa?
The genitive -n disappears when any possessive suffix is added to a word. The underlying structure here is naapurin (neighbor's) plus the suffix -nsa. Even though the -n drops out in the final spelling, the word still grammatically acts as a genitive modifier for taloon.
Why is the house in the illative case (taloon)?
The verb tunkeutua (to intrude or force one's way in) expresses movement into a destination, so it requires the illative case (into something). Just like you would say mennä taloon, you say tunkeutua taloon.
How does the verb tunkeutua relate to the base verb tunkea?
The verb tunkea is a transitive verb meaning to stuff, cram, or push something else into a space. Adding the -utua ending makes tunkeutua a reflexive verb. It shifts the meaning to pushing oneself into a space, which works perfectly here for "to intrude".