# Ehdin jo hetken kuvitella, että tietyn määräajan loppuessa kissat lopetettaisiin



## yingguoning

The whole sentence is, "Ehdin jo hetken kuvitella, että tietyn määräajan loppuessa kissat lopetettaisiin."

ehdin (ehtiä): I have time
jo: already
hetken (hetki): moment
kuvitella: to imagine

I have time already to think for a moment, that...?

Sounds weird.


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## Gavril

I think this might be the same usage of the verb _ehtiä_ discussed in this thread. As you say, its meaning here is different than merely "to have time to [do something]".

It's hard to separately translate the word _ehdin_ here, but a possible translation of the whole sentence (which is from an article about shelter cats) is,

"I had already momentarily slipped into thinking that the cats would be done away with [= killed] after a certain deadline passed [unless they found an owner]"

This translation can probably be improved on, but it's the best that I can think of right now.


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## Spongiformi

While technically speaking that's indeed the case, it's probably not necessary to be so literal when translating it into English. It could be _"ehtiä"_ is used more liberally in Finnish than any equivalent in English. In this particular case it doesn't really add much to the sentence. Perhaps a little bit of stress or something.

_"Ehdin jo hetken kuvitella..."_ ~ _"Hetken jo kuvittelin..."_

So, it might be enough to place the emphasis on the _"hetken" _(a moment) to say that "For a moment I thought..."


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## yingguoning

Thanks Spongiformi and Gavril. Those are exactly the answers I was looking for.


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