Breakdown of Lässähtikö kakku ja menikö se pilalle?
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
ja
and
mennä
to go
kakku
cake
pilalle
to a ruined state
lässähtää
to fall flat
Questions & Answers about Lässähtikö kakku ja menikö se pilalle?
Why does the sentence use menikö pilalle instead of a single verb meaning "to get ruined"?
Finnish frequently expresses a change into a physical or abstract state using the verb mennä (to go) alongside a noun or adverb in the illative case (the "into" case). The word pilalle translates to "into a spoiled state" or "into ruin." So rather than using a passive verb, the idiom is that the cake literally "went into ruin."
What makes lässähtää the right verb here instead of a standard verb for falling, like pudota?
Words like pudota mean to physically drop or fall off a surface. Lässähtää specifically means to deflate, flop, or fall flat. It is the highly idiomatic, descriptive verb for a baked good that fails to rise, and you can also use it abstractly for a party or mood that loses its energy.
Why do we need the question particle -kö on both lässähtikö and menikö?
Because this is a compound sentence joined by ja (and), it consists of two separate clauses. To make both clauses a yes/no question, you need to attach -kö to the main verb of each. Without the second -kö, the sentence would technically mean "Did the cake fall flat, and it got ruined."
Since we already know we are talking about the kakku, why do we have to include the pronoun se in the second half?
While Finnish allows you to drop first and second-person pronouns (I, you, we), third-person pronouns like se (it) and hän (he/she) are mandatory. Even when the subject is completely obvious from the first clause, you still need to explicitly include se as the subject of the second clause.
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