Breakdown of Hän haluaa tietää, miksi sisustan koko asunnon.
hän
he / she
tietää
to know
miksi
why
haluta
to want
koko
whole
asunto
apartment
sisustaa
to decorate (interior design or furnish)
Questions & Answers about Hän haluaa tietää, miksi sisustan koko asunnon.
Why is there a comma before miksi here?
In Finnish, subordinate clauses, including indirect questions like miksi sisustan koko asunnon, must be separated from the main clause by a comma. This is a strict punctuation rule that differs from English.
How does the word koko affect the case of asunnon?
The word koko (whole or entire) is an indeclinable adjective, meaning it never changes its ending. However, the noun it modifies must still take the correct object case. Because decorating the whole apartment is viewed as a total, completed action, asunto takes the accusative case (which looks like the genitive here), becoming asunnon.
Could I use the partitive case koko asuntoa instead?
Yes, but it changes the aspect of the action. If you use the partitive koko asuntoa, it implies an ongoing or incomplete process (you are currently in the middle of decorating it). Using the total object koko asunnon indicates that the decorating will be carried through to completion.
If we changed this to a passive sentence (why the whole apartment is being decorated), how would the object change?
The passive verb would be sisustetaan. In a passive sentence, a total singular object loses its -n ending and takes the nominative form, so the phrase would become miksi koko asunto sisustetaan. The word koko naturally stays exactly the same.
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