Breakdown of Hän on aina ystävällinen minua kohtaan.
olla
to be
minä
I
hän
he / she
aina
always
ystävällinen
friendly
kohtaan
towards (in attitude), regarding
Questions & Answers about Hän on aina ystävällinen minua kohtaan.
The lesson teaches that ystävällinen takes the allative case (like minulle). Why does this sentence use minua kohtaan instead?
Both are perfectly correct! You can say either Hän on ystävällinen minulle (He is friendly to me) or Hän on ystävällinen minua kohtaan (He is friendly towards me). With adjectives describing interpersonal attitudes, using the postposition kohtaan is a very common alternative to the allative case.
Is there any difference in meaning or tone between using the allative (minulle) and using kohtaan?
The meaning is almost identical, but kohtaan (towards) can sound slightly more formal or emphasize the direction of the attitude. Minulle is often more casual and direct. However, in everyday speech, they are largely interchangeable when talking about behavior towards someone.
Why is the pronoun minä in the partitive case (minua) here?
The postposition kohtaan always requires the word preceding it to be in the partitive case. So minä becomes minua, just as hän would become häntä kohtaan (towards him/her).
I recognize kohtaan from the verb kohdata (to meet). Are they related?
Yes! They share the same root word kohta (point, spot, place). The postposition kohtaan originally meant pointing or facing to the spot of someone or something, which makes perfect sense for translating 'towards'.
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