Breakdown of Kun hypnotisoin ystäväni, hän menee heti hypnoosiin.
hän
he / she
ystävä
friend
mennä
to go
heti
immediately
kun
when (conjunction)
hypnoosi
hypnosis
hypnotisoida
to hypnotize
Questions & Answers about Kun hypnotisoin ystäväni, hän menee heti hypnoosiin.
How would I rewrite this sentence to say 'I make my friend go into hypnosis' using the grammar from this lesson?
You would use the verb saada followed by the object ystäväni and the third infinitive illative form of mennä, which is menemään. The sentence becomes: Saan ystäväni menemään heti hypnoosiin.
Since I am hypnotizing my friend completely, shouldn't the object be in the genitive-accusative case, like ystävän?
It actually is! However, there is a special rule in Finnish: when you add a possessive suffix like -ni to a word ending in the genitive-accusative -n, that -n is dropped. So ystävän plus -ni simply becomes ystäväni.
How does the object ystäväni tell us about the timing of the action?
Because ystäväni is a total object, it indicates that the action is fully completed before the next thing happens. It essentially means 'When I have hypnotized my friend'. If you wanted to say 'While I am hypnotizing my friend', you would use the partitive object: Kun hypnotisoin ystävääni.
The word hypnoosiin is in the illative case. Is entering a state treated like entering a physical location here?
Exactly. In Finnish, entering a state or condition is often expressed as if you are moving into a physical space. The verb mennä requires the illative case for the destination, so entering the state of hypnosis translates to mennä hypnoosiin.
Learn Kun hypnotisoin ystäväni, hän menee heti hypnoosiin and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free