Word
Pohjattoman kuilun takia emme pääse eteenpäin ollenkaan.
Meaning
Because of the bottomless chasm, we cannot get forward at all.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Pohjattoman kuilun takia emme pääse eteenpäin ollenkaan.
ei
no / not (negative verb)
päästä
to get to, to reach
eteenpäin
forward
takia
because of
Questions & Answers about Pohjattoman kuilun takia emme pääse eteenpäin ollenkaan.
How does the word pohjaton (bottomless) become pohjattoman in this sentence?
The suffix -ton means "without" (like the English "-less"). When you inflect adjectives ending in -ton or -tön, the base form changes to a strong-grade stem ending in -ttoma- or -ttömä-. Because this sentence requires the genitive case (ending in -n), the stem pohjattoma- takes the -n, resulting in pohjattoman.
Why are both pohjattoman and kuilun in the genitive case?
They are in the genitive because of the postposition takia (because of). In Finnish, takia requires the word it modifies to be in the genitive case. As an adjective modifying kuilun (of the chasm), pohjattoman must agree with it and take the exact same case ending.
Why use pääse (from päästä) here instead of a basic verb like mennä (to go)?
While mennä simply means "to go", päästä carries the meaning of "to manage to get somewhere", "to reach", or "to be able to go". Because there is a physical obstacle (the chasm) preventing them from moving forward, emme pääse (we cannot manage to get / we are prevented from going) is much more natural than emme mene (we don't go).
The word ollenkaan means "at all". Can it be used in positive sentences too?