# kun sitä



## oloekis

Se voi tarkoittaa "Minä haluan tehdä..." tai "Minä aion tehdä..." tai se voi tarkoittaa "Haluaisitko tehdä...?" kun *sitä *käytetään kysymyslauseessa.


Moi, could you give me any explanation about why sitä, the partitive form of "se", is used there? I can only assume that it might be because of "käytetään" that follows. Is there any rule to using singular partitive form of "se"? 

 Kiitos avusta.


----------



## fennofiili

I’m afraid I don’t quite understand the meaning of the sentence. It seems to refer to some expression of some language – my guess is that it is about the English verb “will”, in a somewhat confusing way.

Anyway, the form “sitä” is used because the verb “käyttää” normally has its object in the partitive: käytetään aikaa, käytetään vasaraa, käytetään monia keinoja, käytetään sitä. This is a property of the verb, a rection thing. It is usually not described explicitly in dictionaries; you need to infer it from the examples.

“Käyttää” has its object in the nominative when it means “to use entirely, to use up”. Compare: “niitä rahoja käytettiin auton ostoon” (some of that money was spent to buy a car) vs. “ne rahat käytettiin auton ostoon” (that money was spent to buy a car).


----------



## 盲人瞎馬

Käyttää is a partitive verb, i.e. transitive verbs whose objects are almost always in the partitive.

See http://www.uusikielemme.fi/partitiiviverbit.html


----------



## fennofiili

Vitalore said:


> Käyttää is a partitive verb, i.e. transitive verbs whose objects are almost always in the partitive.
> 
> See http://www.uusikielemme.fi/partitiiviverbit.html



That’s somewhat oversimplified. As I mention in my reply, _käyttää _does not always have its object in the partitive. Similar considerations apply to many verbs classified as “partitive verbs” on that page. For example, _auttaa _normally takes a partitive object, as in _autoin sinua_ (I helped you), but we say _autoin sinut alkuun_ (I helped you to get started), with the object in the accusative.


----------



## DrWatson

Like fennofiili said, partitive verbs can sometimes be used with accusative objects, for example _rakastaa _(_Rakastan sinua_ 'I love you', cf. _Rakastan sinut kuoliaaksi_ 'I love you to death'). In such cases there usually is an extra word there to indicate the completeness or definiteness of the action, like _kuoliaaksi _here.


----------

