puoli vs puolet

[Jukka Aho]

The comment about valauttaa interests me. I thought -ttaa verbs were causative i.e syöttää vs syödä etc. Did you mean valahtaa with the -ahta- part as the clear give away for momentane aspect?

valauttaa = to trigger valahdus (the subject is not the thing that drops down but the actor who causes the dropping down)
valahtaa = to do the valahdus (the subject is the thing that drops down)

[Jukka Aho]

Ooh, this is starting to help! Thanks as always :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Will read this some more after I have rested my knee which is now "half bunged up" from skiing....

....ja myös minä ...... jälkeen lepuutan mun vasen etusormini joka puoli-katkaisin "buck" sahan kanssa....:lol:
OK...two things....can you change the verb katkaista in this way??....making a kind of "compound" verb out of it??....

Usually you would say...

    Luen tämän sen jälkeen kun olen lepuuttanut vasenta etusormeani, jonka puoliksi katkaisin pokasahalla.

or

    Luen tämän sen jälkeen kun olen lepuuttanut vasenta etusormeani, jonka lähes katkaisin pokasahalla.

or

    Luen tämän sen jälkeen kun olen lepuuttanut vasenta etusormeani, jonka miltei katkaisin pokasahalla.

and how would you say, "bucksaw" or "Swede saw" in Finnish???

bucksaw = pokasaha

[Rob A.]

Ooh, this is starting to help! Thanks as always
Will read this some more after I have rested my knee which is now "half bunged up" from skiing....

....ja myös minä ...... jälkeen lepuutan mun vasen etusormini joka puoli-katkaisin "buck" sahan kanssa....
OK...two things....can you change the verb katkaista in this way??....making a kind of "compound" verb out of it??....

Usually you would say...

    Luen tämän sen jälkeen kun olen lepuuttanut vasenta etusormeani, jonka puoliksi katkaisin pokasahalla.

or

    Luen tämän sen jälkeen kun olen lepuuttanut vasenta etusormeani, jonka lähes katkaisin pokasahalla.

or

    Luen tämän sen jälkeen kun olen lepuuttanut vasenta etusormeani, jonka miltei katkaisin pokasahalla.

and how would you say, "bucksaw" or "Swede saw" in Finnish???

bucksaw = pokasaha

Thanks Jukka

"Lepuuttaa" is an ongoing action and so the thing that is resting...the etusormi needs to be in the partitive....??? But, jonka,...the accusative form ...is used because the "etusormi" is now the subject of a completed action....the near-severance is now "complete"...

[Aside: This, of course, is a bit exaggerated so I could used a puoli example....the finger was badly gashed, but is healing nicely....]

....and I'm still wondering...can you make compound verbs in the same way as you can make compound nouns???

Maitoa...(partitive...???) puoli-juoksetti kuuman sään takia.....

[Jukka Aho]

"Lepuuttaa" is an ongoing action and so the thing that is resting...the etusormi needs to be in the partitive....???

Yes.

But, jonka,...the accusative form ...is used because the "etusormi" is now the subject of a completed action....the near-severance is now "complete"...

Correct again. It’s a done thing; already behind us.

[Aside: This, of course, is a bit exaggerated so I could used a puoli example....the finger was badly gashed, but is healing nicely....:lol:]

Oh, you actually had a little accident...? :| Hope it will heal quickly. Do you have your tetanus shots in order?

....and I'm still wondering...can you make compound verbs in the same way as you can make compound nouns???

Maitoa...(partitive...???) puoli-juoksetti kuuman sään takia.....:D

Maito [some definite portion, amount, containerful, or measurement of it] puoliksi juoksettui kuuman sään takia.

There are some ways to make compound verbs; I just can’t think of any such usage with the word puoli. But the prefix etä-, for instance, can be quite “productive” in this day and age of the Internet. Etäostaa, etäneuvoa, etäohjata, etäopiskella, ...

[Rob A.]

[Aside: This, of course, is a bit exaggerated so I could used a puoli example....the finger was badly gashed, but is healing nicely....]

Oh, you actually had a little accident...? Hope it will heal quickly. Do you have your tetanus shots in order?

Ahh yes...tetanus....the doctor at emergency went on about that... I couldn't really remember if I had an up-to-date shot....so I was kind of "waffling" ....And asked him what he recommended....he said, "You're the patient....what do you want?" So I got another shot..... and yet I never seem to worry about all those minor cuts and scrapes....Sometimes I think the world is maybe a bit too cautious.....

.....Maito [some definite portion, amount, containerful, or measurement of it] puoliksi juoksettui kuuman sään takia.

There are some ways to make compound verbs; I just can’t think of any such usage with the word puoli. But the prefix etä-, for instance, can be quite “productive” in this day and age of the Internet. Etäostaa, etäneuvoa, etäohjata, etäopiskella, ...

Thanks....juoksetti v. juoksettui....another of those verb shifts that mean so much....I'll have to figure this one out tomorrow.... And, yes, etä-...I'll look around a bit for other verb prefixes ...maybe wikipedia has a listing....

[Jukka Aho]

Ahh yes...tetanus....the doctor at emergency went on about that... [...] Sometimes I think the world is maybe a bit too cautious.....:lol:

The Finnish word for the condition is rather scary: jäykkäkouristus.

Thanks....juoksetti v. juoksettui....another of those verb shifts that mean so much....I'll have to figure this one out tomorrow....

juoksettaa = to curdle [a transitive verb; requires a subject (who is responsible for curdling) and an object (who got or is getting into a curdled state as a result)]

juoksettua = to curdle [an intransitive verb; there’s no object – the subject of the sentence got or is getting into a curdled state]

And, yes, etä-...I'll look around a bit for other verb prefixes ...maybe wikipedia has a listing.... :D

I found some examples by doing a search on the keyword yhdysverbi.

[Rob A.]

Ahh yes...tetanus....the doctor at emergency went on about that... [...] Sometimes I think the world is maybe a bit too cautious.....

The Finnish word for the condition is rather scary: jäykkäkouristus.

Indeed it is ....literally "stiff spasm"....an old term in English I remember is "lockjaw"....almost as scary...

wiki defines "lockjaw" this way:

A spasmodic, nervous system disease brought on by the tetanus bacteria. It causes muscles to seize up and may cause death by suffocation.

...Makes the momentary annoyance of a tetanus shot pale in comparison....

Thanks....juoksetti v. juoksettui....another of those verb shifts that mean so much....I'll have to figure this one out tomorrow....

juoksettaa = to curdle [a transitive verb; requires a subject (who is responsible for curdling) and an object (who got or is getting into a curdled state as a result)]

juoksettua = to curdle [an intransitive verb; there’s no object – the subject of the sentence got or is getting into a curdled state]

Yes....the morphological distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs take on more importance in Finnish than in English....or maybe I've absorbed all of this in English so long ago, I can make the distinction without thinking about it...

But I see there are a few clues in in the verb forms...I've forgotten the grammatical term for this at the moment..... In Finnish, verb infinitives ending in -ua/yä are often intransitive....as are single-"a" verbs...and there are other conventions...

Here's a Mäkäräinen list:

http://www.uta.fi/~km56049/finnish/transin.html

I found some examples by doing a search on the keyword yhdysverbi.

Merci beaucoup!!...

[Pursuivant]

I'd rather go with some yhdyntäverbi... like nussitaisiinkohan