Breakdown of Potilas oli hetken ilman tajua.
olla
to be
ilman
without
hetki
moment
potilas
the patient
taju
consciousness; grasp (of something)
Questions & Answers about Potilas oli hetken ilman tajua.
Why does this sentence use the form hetken instead of the basic form hetki?
Hetken is in the accusative case (which looks identical to the genitive -n for singular nouns). It is used here to indicate a duration of time. Whenever you want to say that an action lasted "for a moment," you use this specific case.
What dictates the partitive case on the word tajua?
The preposition ilman (without). In Finnish, the word immediately following ilman must always be in the partitive case.
Based on this lesson, I expected a possessive suffix like ilman tajuaan (without his/her consciousness). Why is it missing?
While you normally omit hänen and use a possessive suffix for your own things (like ilman takkiaan - without his/her coat), Finnish often drops the idea of possession completely for abstract or body-related states. Just as you say ilman paitaa (shirtless) instead of ilman paitaansa, you say ilman tajua, treating it as a general physical state rather than an object the patient owns.
Is taju the only word for "consciousness" in Finnish?
No, taju refers specifically to being physically awake or responsive. You could also just use the adjective tajuton (unconscious) to express this exact same idea. If you mean "consciousness" in a deeper philosophical or psychological sense, you would use words like tietoisuus or tajunta.
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