Questions & Answers about Huono heitto lentää vain metrin.
Why is metrin in the genitive/accusative case here instead of the partitive?
It is expressing an exact distance. In affirmative sentences, exact measurements of distance, weight, and time act syntactically like total objects. Therefore, they take the accusative case, which for a singular noun looks identical to the genitive and ends in -n.
Since lentää is an intransitive verb (it doesn't normally take a direct object), why does it trigger an object case here?
While lentää cannot take a normal direct object, Finnish treats exact distances, durations, and weights as a special kind of object (sometimes called a measure object). These follow the exact same case rules as standard direct objects, allowing intransitive verbs to take them.
What would happen to metrin if the sentence was negative, for instance, 'A bad throw doesn't fly a meter'?
Just like standard direct objects, measure objects switch to the partitive case in a negative sentence. If the throw did not fly a meter, the sentence would become Huono heitto ei lennä metriä.
What if the distance was a plural number, like 'five meters'? Would the word for meter still take the -n ending?
No, if you use a number other than one, the number itself takes the object role. You would say viisi metriä. Here, the number viisi takes the total object case (which looks like the nominative for basic numbers), and metriä is in the partitive case simply because it follows a number.
Learn Huono heitto lentää vain metrin 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