Tarvitsen apua tämän tehtävän kanssa.

I need help with this task.

Breakdown of Tarvitsen apua tämän tehtävän kanssa.

• tämä: this
• tarvita: to need
• kanssa: with
• apu: the help
• tehtävä: the task

Questions & Answers about Tarvitsen apua tämän tehtävän kanssa.

What is the literal translation of Tarvitsen apua tämän tehtävän kanssa?

It translates to "I need help with this task." Here, tarvitsen means "I need," apua stands for "help" (in the partitive), tämän means "this," tehtävän is "task" in the required form, and kanssa translates as "with."

Why is the noun apua in the partitive case instead of the nominative or accusative?

In Finnish, certain verbs like tarvita ("to need") take their objects in the partitive case when referring to an indefinite or incomplete quantity. Using apua in the partitive emphasizes that the help needed is not a fully defined, countable entity.

What role does the demonstrative tämän play in the sentence?

Tämän functions as a demonstrative adjective meaning "this." It specifies which task is being referred to and appears in the genitive form to agree with the noun tehtävän that follows.

Why is tehtävä altered to tehtävän when used with kanssa?

The postposition kanssa ("with") governs the noun that follows by requiring it to be in the genitive case. Consequently, tehtävä becomes tehtävän to satisfy this grammatical rule.

Why is there no explicit subject like minä ("I") in the sentence?

Finnish verbs are conjugated to incorporate subject information. The form tarvitsen already indicates the first person singular ("I"), making an explicit pronoun unnecessary. This is a common feature in Finnish sentence structure.