sirotella tuhkaa päälleen

Finnish

Etymology

Literally, “to spread ash over oneself” - a direct reference to the Biblical tradition of throwing ashes over one's head as a symbol of mourning for one's sins.

Verb

sirotella tuhkaa päälleen

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) to regret deeply, to blame oneself for a loss or mishap
    Hävisimme pelin, mutta ei ole syytä sirotella tuhkaa päällemme. Pelasimme olosuhteisiin nähden hyvin.
    We lost the game, but there's no reason to blame ourselves. Given the circumstances, we played well.

Conjugation

  • See sirotella.
  • tuhkaa is in the partitive case, but is inflected in the genitive in action nouns: see Appendix:Finnish verb phrases.
  • päälleen also receives a possessive suffix:
Personal/possessive forms for word in phrase
possessor singular plural
1st person päälleni päällemme
2nd person päällesi päällenne
3rd person päälleen
päällensä
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