Breakdown of Varovaisuus on tärkeää, kun kosket eläimeen.
olla
to be
tärkeä
important
kun
when (conjunction)
eläin
animal
koskea
to touch
varovaisuus
caution
Questions & Answers about Varovaisuus on tärkeää, kun kosket eläimeen.
Why does koskea govern the illative case eläimeen here rather than the partitive eläintä?
This highlights the core of the current lesson! The verb koskea requires the illative case (like eläimeen) when it means "to physically touch." If it were followed by the partitive case (eläintä), it would change the meaning to say that caution "concerns" or "applies to" an animal.
Why is tärkeää in the partitive case when the subject varovaisuus is in the nominative?
Varovaisuus is an abstract, uncountable concept. In Finnish, when the subject of an "is" (olla) sentence is a mass noun or an abstract idea, the predicative adjective describing it must be in the partitive case.
How is the noun varovaisuus built from the adjective varovainen (careful)?
The suffix -uus or -yys turns adjectives into abstract nouns, much like "-ness" in English. When adding this to adjectives ending in -nen, the -nen changes to an -s, creating varovaisuus (carefulness or caution).
How exactly do we get the illative form eläimeen from the basic word eläin?
Nouns ending in -in change their stem to end in -ime-, making the stem eläime-. To form the illative case, you lengthen that final vowel and add -n, resulting in eläimeen.
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