Breakdown of Älä riko tuota väliseinää ennen kuin katsot pohjapiirrosta.
tuo
that
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
katsoa
to watch
rikkoa
to break
ennen kuin
before (conjunction)
pohjapiirros
floor plan
väliseinä
partition wall
Questions & Answers about Älä riko tuota väliseinää ennen kuin katsot pohjapiirrosta.
Why is the object tuota väliseinää in the partitive instead of the genitive/accusative?
The action is negative (Älä riko, do not break). In Finnish, whenever the sentence is negative, the object must take the partitive case, even if you are talking about breaking the entire wall.
I thought words ending in -sta were in the elative case ('out of'). Is pohjapiirrosta in the elative here?
No, this is actually the partitive case of the noun pohjapiirros (floor plan). Nouns ending in -os or -ös form their partitive by simply adding -ta or -tä. It is in the partitive because the verb katsoa (to look at) requires a partitive object. If it were the elative case, it would be pohjapiirroksesta.
Why does riko only have one 'k' when the dictionary form is rikkoa?
The negative imperative uses the exact same stem as the first-person singular present tense (minä rikon). The closed syllable triggers the weak grade in consonant gradation, shrinking the double kk down to a single k.
Can ennen kuin be written as a single word?
No, ennen kuin (before) is always written as two separate words in standard Finnish, even though it is often pronounced quickly as a single, blended word in spoken Finnish.
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