# Why can the object of "haluta" be in the accusative?



## Maabdreo

Hello!

It seems strange to me that the object of "haluta" could be in the accusative, as in "minä haluaisin koiran." This feeling is based entirely on what I learned from Fred Karlsson's grammar book: affirmative verbs that are "irresultative" should always take a partitive object.  Karlsson defines irresultative verbs as those expressing an action which "does not lead to any 'important' final result."  I would have guessed that "haluta" would fall into this category, but apparently not.  Would it make sense to Finnish-speakers to think of "wanting something" as a resultative action, and why?  Or would it be better to consider "haluta" an exception to what otherwise seems like a useful rule?


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## sakvaka

The verb "haluta" also means "to lust". When talking about people or living things, partial objects are often used in that sense and total object in the sense "to want":
_Minä haluan sinua._ I lust you.
_Minä haluan sinut. _I want you.

_*Minä haluaisin koiraa_ sounds awkward for this very reason, unless the speaker is known to have zoophilic tendencies.

As for impersonal objects, the same rules apply as to all other verbs: partitive is used with divisible concepts and negative/doubtful sentences and accusative/genitive/nominative with non-divisible ones.
_Haluan maitoa.
Haluan tuon kirjan.
En halua tuota kirjaa._


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## Spongiformi

sakvaka said:


> _*Minä haluaisin koiraa_ sounds awkward for this very reason, unless the speaker is known to have zoophilic tendencies.



No. It just sounds like you are in a genuine Chinese restaurant ordering a portion of well prepared dog meat.

_Minä haluaisin koiran _= I'd like to have a dog.
_Minä haluaisin koiraa_ = I'd like to have dog (dog meat).


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## Gavril

Hi Sakvaka,



sakvaka said:


> As for impersonal objects, the same rules apply as to all other verbs: partitive is used with divisible concepts and negative/doubtful sentences and accusative/genitive/nominative with non-divisible ones.
> _Haluan maitoa.
> Haluan tuon kirjan.
> En halua tuota kirjaa._



Just a small point about "divisible"/"non-divisible": if you're using these words to translate Finnish _jaollinen_ and _jaoton_, I think it might be better to use the terms *mass noun* (water/vesi, milk/maito, etc.) and *count noun* (book/kirja, person/ihminen, house/talo, etc.) instead.

"divisible" and "non-divisible" can sound confusing to an English speaker in this context, because there is nothing inherently indivisible about count nouns: you can divide a house into pieces just as you can divide a quantity of water into many smaller quantities.

Hopefully I'm not being too _saivarteleva_ -- I just think the English terms could be clearer here.


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## Maabdreo

Thanks for the answers!


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