Breakdown of Sääntö koskee karsinaa ja pupun ruokintaa.
ja
and
sääntö
rule
koskea
to concern / apply to
ruokinta
feeding
karsina
pen (enclosure)
pupu
bunny
Questions & Answers about Sääntö koskee karsinaa ja pupun ruokintaa.
Why are both karsinaa and ruokintaa in the partitive case?
This is the core of how the verb koskea works. When it means "to concern" or "to apply to" an abstract concept or rule, it requires its object to be in the partitive case.
What if the sentence meant physically touching the pen? Would the case change?
Yes! If a piece of paper with the rule written on it was physically touching the pen, koskea would take the illative case. You would say Sääntö koskee karsinaan. Since this sentence is about what the rule applies to, we use the partitive instead.
Why is pupu in the genitive case (pupun) instead of matching the partitive case of the other objects?
Pupun (the bunny's) is modifying the word ruokintaa (feeding), acting as the possessor. It tells us whose feeding it is. The verb koskee dictates the case of the main nouns (karsinaa and ruokintaa), but any genitive modifiers attached to those nouns stay in the genitive.
What is the base form of ruokintaa and how is it formed?
The base form is ruokinta (the act of feeding). It is a noun derived from the verb ruokkia (to feed) by adding the suffix -nta. It is very common in Finnish to turn verbs into nouns representing the act of doing the verb using this ending.
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