Breakdown of Naapurivahti vaatii valpasta asennetta teiltä kaikilta.
te
you (plural/formal)
kaikki
all, everything, everyone
vaatia
to claim (demand)
asenne
attitude
naapurivahti
the neighborhood watch
valpas
vigilant
Questions & Answers about Naapurivahti vaatii valpasta asennetta teiltä kaikilta.
Why do both teiltä and kaikilta take the ablative -lta ending?
In Finnish, when a quantifier like kaikki (all) or molemmat (both) modifies a personal pronoun, they must both agree in case. Since the verb vaatia (to demand or require) takes the ablative case for the person you are demanding something from, both te and kaikki get the -lta ending, becoming teiltä kaikilta (from all of you).
Could I change the word order and say kaikilta teiltä?
Yes, you can. Both teiltä kaikilta and kaikilta teiltä are grammatically correct and mean the exact same thing. However, placing the personal pronoun first (teiltä kaikilta) is the most common and natural-sounding word order in standard Finnish.
Why is the object valpasta asennetta in the partitive rather than the genitive-accusative?
The verb vaatia takes a partitive object when the thing being demanded is an abstract, uncountable concept, like an attitude (asenne). If you were demanding a specific, whole concrete object, you would use the genitive-accusative, as in Naapurivahti vaatii uuden kameran (The neighborhood watch requires a new camera).
What is the base form of asennetta, and why does it take the -tta ending?
The base form is asenne (attitude). It belongs to the group of words ending in -e. A great rule to remember for B2 is that for all -e words, the partitive is formed simply by adding -tta or -ttä directly to the nominative form, which is why we get asennetta.
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