Breakdown of Miekkailijat miekkailevat toinen toistaan vastaan.
toinen
other, another; second
vastaan
against
miekkailija
the fencer
miekkailla
to fence
Questions & Answers about Miekkailijat miekkailevat toinen toistaan vastaan.
Why is the first toinen in the nominative singular when the subject (miekkailijat) is plural?
This is the formal distributive way to express 'each other'. It translates roughly to 'one [against] the other'. Even though the main subject miekkailijat is plural, the reciprocal phrase breaks the group action down to the level of individuals interacting. Therefore, the first toinen acts as a singular 'one' and is always fixed in the nominative singular.
Why is the second half of the reciprocal phrase in the partitive case (toistaan)?
The case of the second toinen is dictated by whatever the surrounding sentence structure requires for an object or complement. Here, the postposition vastaan (against) demands that its headword be in the partitive case. The partitive of toinen is toista, which then receives the possessive suffix.
Why does toista get the possessive suffix -an here?
In this formal double-toinen structure, the second word must take a possessive suffix that matches the grammatical person of the subject. Since miekkailijat (the fencers) is third-person plural, we add the third-person suffix -an (or alternatively -nsa) to the partitive toista, resulting in toistaan.
Is toinen toistaan vastaan the most common way to say this in everyday spoken Finnish?
No, this specific distributive syntax is quite formal and is mostly found in written Finnish. In everyday speech, people usually drop the first toinen and just use the plural reciprocal pronoun on its own, saying toisiaan vastaan (against each other).
How are the words miekkailijat and miekkailevat built from the same root?
Both originate from the core noun miekka (sword). Adding the suffix -illa creates the verb miekkailla (to fence / to sword-fight). From that verb stem, adding the agent suffix -ja creates the noun miekkailija (fencer, literally 'one who fences'), which is pluralized here with -t.
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