Breakdown of Me tarvitsimme yhteyden, mutta se ei ole turvallinen.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
mutta
but
me
we
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
tarvita
to need
turvallinen
safe
yhteys
connection
Questions & Answers about Me tarvitsimme yhteyden, mutta se ei ole turvallinen.
How do we form the past tense tarvitsimme from the basic verb tarvita?
tarvita is a Type 5 verb. In the present tense, we use the stem tarvitse- (like tarvitsemme for "we need"). To make the past tense (imperfect) for Type 5 verbs, that marker becomes -itsi-. Then we just add the "we" ending -mme to get tarvitsimme (we needed).
Why does the word for connection, yhteys, end in -n here (yhteyden)?
It is the object of our action (the thing we needed). Because the action is affirmative and we needed the whole thing, it takes the accusative case, which usually looks like the genitive ending -n. To add it, the basic word yhteys changes to its stem form yhteyde-, creating yhteyden.
Is it normal to have a past tense verb (tarvitsimme) and a present tense verb (ei ole) in the same sentence?
Yes! Just like in English, Finnish sentences can mix tenses if the meaning requires it. The need happened in the past (we needed it), but the fact that the connection is unsafe is still true right now (it is not safe).
Why doesn't the adjective turvallinen get an -n ending to match yhteyden?
Because turvallinen (safe) is in a completely separate part of the sentence. After the word mutta (but), we start a new clause where se (it) is the subject. When describing a subject with the verb to be (olla), the adjective stays in its basic dictionary form.
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