pitää kynttiläänsä vakan alla

Finnish

Etymology

Literally, “to keep one's candle under the vakka”, from the Bible.

Verb

pitää kynttiläänsä vakan alla

  1. (idiomatic) to hide one's light under a bushel (to conceal one's talents or positive qualities, especially due to modesty or shyness; to avoid attention)
    Älä pidä kynttilääsi vakan alla!
    Don't hide your light under a bushel!

Conjugation

See pitää. kynttiläänsä is in the partitive case, but is inflected in the genitive in action nouns: see Appendix:Finnish verb phrases. It also takes a possessive suffix according to the subject of the sentence. vakan alla is not inflected.

Personal/possessive forms for word in phrase
possessor singular plural
1st person kynttilääni kynttiläämme
2nd person kynttilääsi kynttiläänne
3rd person kynttiläänsä

Synonyms

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