Breakdown of Meidän aikomuksemme on pitää lupaus suojella kaupunkia.
olla
to be
me
we
kaupunki
city
pitää
to hold / take (a break)
suojella
to protect (e.g., a person, nature)
lupaus
promise
aikomus
intention
Questions & Answers about Meidän aikomuksemme on pitää lupaus suojella kaupunkia.
How does the abstract noun lupaus connect to the verb suojella here?
Lupaus (promise) is an abstract noun that can directly take a first infinitive as its complement. Just as the verb luvata (to promise) takes an infinitive, the noun form does too, allowing structures like lupaus suojella (the promise to protect) without any extra connecting words.
Why is the object lupaus in the basic nominative form instead of the genitive-accusative lupauksen?
This is a tricky object rule! The verb taking the object here is the infinitive pitää. In structures like aikomus on tehdä (the intention is to do), the infinitive doesn't have a direct grammatical subject performing the action in that clause. When an infinitive has no overt subject, its total object takes the nominative form instead of the genitive.
Why is kaupunkia in the partitive case?
The verb suojella (to protect) inherently requires a partitive object. In Finnish, verbs that express continuous feelings or unbounded actions (like protecting, helping, or loving) always take the partitive case, regardless of the rest of the sentence's structure.
Could I express this same idea using the verb aikoa (to intend) instead of the noun aikomus?
Yes, you could say Me aiomme pitää lupauksen, which sounds slightly more natural in everyday speech. Notice that if you switch to the verb aiomme, you now have a clear subject (me), so the object lupaus must change to the genitive-accusative form lupauksen.
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