Breakdown of Jätimme oppipojan karkaisemaan metallista terää.
jättää
to leave (something behind)
metallinen
made of metal
terä
blade
oppipoika
apprentice
Questions & Answers about Jätimme oppipojan karkaisemaan metallista terää.
Why does this sentence use karkaisemaan instead of the basic dictionary form karkaista?
Verbs of leaving, staying, and forgetting, such as jättää (to leave), require the following verb to be in the third infinitive illative form. This means you take the verb stem and add -maan or -mään. Think of it as leaving the apprentice literally 'into' the action of tempering.
Why is oppipojan in the genitive-looking accusative form (-n)?
Oppipojan is the direct object of the main verb jätimme. Because the action of leaving was fully completed, it takes the total object case, which for singular nouns looks identical to the genitive (-n).
Why is the second object, terää, in the partitive case instead of the accusative?
While the apprentice is the object of the completed main verb, terää is the object of the infinitive karkaisemaan (to temper). The act of tempering the blade is an ongoing, continuous process from the perspective of the subject leaving, so its object takes the partitive case.
Does metallista mean 'out of metal' (the elative case of the noun metalli)?
It looks identical to that, but here it is actually the partitive form of the adjective metallinen (metallic or made of metal). Because it describes the partitive noun terää, the adjective must also be in the partitive case to match it.