Breakdown of Ostin tuon vanhan pelin tonnilla, mutta en saanut yhtään vaihtorahaa.
tuo
that
mutta
but
vanha
old
ei
no / not (negative verb)
Questions & Answers about Ostin tuon vanhan pelin tonnilla, mutta en saanut yhtään vaihtorahaa.
Why is tonni (a grand/thousand) in the adessive case (tonnilla)?
In Finnish, the adessive case (-lla/-llä) is used to express the exact price in a transaction. When you buy, sell, or rent something for a certain amount, you put the sum in the adessive. So tonnilla translates to "for a grand".
Why is the object tuon vanhan pelin in the genitive-looking accusative case instead of the partitive?
The action of buying the game is a completed, single action, and it applies to one whole object. Therefore, the object takes the accusative form ending in -n. If the sentence were negative (e.g., "I didn't buy the game"), you would have to use the partitive case (tuota vanhaa peliä).
How does yhtään work with vaihtorahaa?
Yhtään is used in negative sentences (and sometimes questions) to mean "any" or "any at all". It always requires the noun that follows it to be in the partitive case, which is why we see the partitive form vaihtorahaa (change).
Is tonni only used for money, or does it mean something else?
Tonni literally means a "ton" (1000 kg) in weight. However, it is extremely common in spoken and informal Finnish to use it to mean a thousand of any currency, much like "a grand" in English. Here it clearly means 1000 euros.