Breakdown of Ratkaisu nopeuttaa projektin kehitystä.
projekti
the project
ratkaisu
the solution
nopeuttaa
to speed up
kehitys
the development
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Questions & Answers about Ratkaisu nopeuttaa projektin kehitystä.
Why is projektin in the genitive case here?
The genitive case (ending -in) marks possession. projektin kehitys literally means “the development of the project.” Here projektin answers the question whose development?—it’s the project’s.
Why is kehitystä in the partitive case rather than the nominative kehitys?
Many Finnish verbs take a partitive object when the action is ongoing, indefinite or affects only part of something. nopeuttaa (“to speed up”) describes making the project’s development proceed faster, not completing it. Hence kehitys becomes partitive kehitystä.
What kind of word is nopeuttaa, and how is it formed?
nopeuttaa is a causative verb derived from the adjective nopea (“fast”). The suffix -uta/-ytä turns adjectives into verbs meaning “to make (something) [adjective].” So nopeuttaa = “to make (something) fast,” i.e. “to speed up.”
Why isn’t there an article like the before Ratkaisu or projektin kehitys?
Finnish has no indefinite or definite articles. Whether you translate Ratkaisu as “a solution” or “the solution” depends entirely on context in English. In Finnish you just use the noun.
Is the word order fixed? Could I say something like “Projektin kehitystä ratkaisu nopeuttaa”?
Finnish word order is fairly flexible. The basic order is Subject–Verb–Object (SVO), but you can move elements for emphasis or style. “Projektin kehitystä ratkaisu nopeuttaa” puts focus on projektin kehitystä, though Ratkaisu nopeuttaa projektin kehitystä is the most neutral.
Why does the partitive ending on kehitystä use -tä instead of -ta?
Finnish vowel harmony requires that suffix vowels match the root’s vowel type. kehitys contains the front vowel y, so its partitive ending is the front-vowel form -tä. If the root had only back vowels (a, o, u), you’d see -ta instead.