Breakdown of Teemme kaiken lasten hyväksi.
lapsi
child
tehdä
to do
kaikki
all, everything, everyone
hyväksi
for the good of, for the benefit of
Questions & Answers about Teemme kaiken lasten hyväksi.
Why is kaikki in the form kaiken?
It is the total object of the sentence. Because teemme is an active verb and the action is completed or applies to the entirety of the object, kaikki takes the genitive-like accusative form kaiken.
Is hyväksi a postposition in this sentence?
Yes. Literally, it is the translative case of the word hyvä (good). However, it functions as a postposition meaning "for the benefit of". Just like the current lesson's words puolesta and sijasta, it requires the noun before it to be in the genitive case, which is why we see lasten.
Could I use puolesta here instead to mean the same thing?
They are grammatically similar but have slightly different meanings. Lasten hyväksi emphasizes doing something to benefit the children. If you said lasten puolesta, it would mean doing something "on behalf of" the children, as if acting as their representative or substitute.
How do we get the form lasten from the basic word lapsi?
The word lapsi has an irregular consonant stem. When adding the plural genitive ending -ten, the stem changes to las-, resulting in lasten. This is a common but irregular pattern for older Finnish words ending in -psi.
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