Breakdown of Hyvää tekniikkaa he opettavat toinen toiselleen.
he
they
hyvä
good
toinen
other, another; second
opettaa
to teach
Questions & Answers about Hyvää tekniikkaa he opettavat toinen toiselleen.
Why use the two-word phrase toinen toiselleen instead of just toisilleen?
This uses the formal distributive structure for reciprocal pronouns. The first toinen stays in the nominative case, acting as the giver of the action. The second toinen takes the case required by the verb plus a possessive suffix, which here is the allative case for the receiver. While toisilleen is common, toinen toiselleen heavily emphasizes the mutual, one-on-one nature of the action.
How is the word toiselleen formed?
It is the pronoun toinen in the allative case toiselle, plus the third-person possessive suffix. Instead of using -nsa, Finnish often uses the vowel-doubling suffix -Vn when the case ending ends in a short vowel. So toiselle plus e plus n becomes toiselleen.
Why does the sentence start with the object Hyvää tekniikkaa instead of the subject he?
Finnish word order is flexible and used to show emphasis. Moving the object to the front of the sentence highlights the information being discussed. It gives the nuance that good technique is exactly what they are teaching each other, rather than something else.
Why is Hyvää tekniikkaa in the partitive case?
The verb opettaa takes a partitive object when you are teaching an abstract skill, a subject, or an unquantified amount of something. They are teaching an ongoing or general concept of technique, rather than a single completed and countable action.