Breakdown of Kun totuin arkielämään, koti-ikävä katosi.
kun
when (conjunction)
tottua
to get used to
kadota
to disappear
arkielämä
everyday life
koti-ikävä
homesickness
Questions & Answers about Kun totuin arkielämään, koti-ikävä katosi.
Why is arkielämään in the illative (into) case here instead of the allative (to)?
This reflects the core rule of verbs like tottua (to get used to). In Finnish, verbs describing the mind entering a state of habit, attachment, or acquaintance (like tottua, rakastua, and tutustua) govern the illative case. You are conceptually getting used into a new situation, so arkielämä (everyday life) takes the -än ending.
The verb for disappeared is katosi. Why does the dictionary form kadota change so drastically here?
kadota is a Type 4 verb. Two things happen in the past tense (imperfect): First, it undergoes reverse consonant gradation where the weak d of the infinitive becomes a strong t in the stem. Second, many Type 4 verbs change their stem ending to an s before the past tense i (just like haluta becomes halusi). Thus, kadota becomes katosi.
Why does koti-ikävä have a hyphen?
It is a compound word made of koti (home) and ikävä (yearning or missing). In Finnish compound words, if the first part ends with the same vowel that the second part starts with (in this case, the letter i), you must use a hyphen to separate them so they are not misread as a single long vowel.
Is the comma after arkielämään strictly necessary?
Yes, Finnish punctuation rules are much stricter than English ones regarding clauses. Because the sentence starts with a subordinate clause introduced by Kun (When), you must use a comma to separate it from the main clause, regardless of how short the clauses are.
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