Questions & Answers about Tämä uutinen on tärkeä.
In English, "news" is an uncountable concept. Why are we using the singular word uutinen here?
In Finnish, uutinen refers to a single, countable "piece of news" or "news item." Because this sentence is talking about one specific piece of news, it uses the singular form. When talking about the news broadcast as a whole or multiple pieces of news, Finnish uses the plural word uutiset.
Why is tärkeä in the basic form (nominative) instead of the partitive form tärkeää?
The case of the describing adjective depends on the subject. Since tämä uutinen (this piece of news) is a singular, countable thing, the adjective tärkeä must be in the basic nominative form. If the subject were an uncountable word like "water" (vesi), the adjective would be in the partitive.
Is the word uutinen related to the word uusi (new)?
Yes! Uutinen is formed from the word uusi. When building new words or adding endings, Finnish uses the word's stem. The stem for uusi is uute-, which is why uutinen has a t in the middle instead of an s.
Since our current lesson is about the past tense, how would I change this exact sentence to say "This news was important"?
You would simply change the verb on (is) to its past tense form oli (was), making the sentence: Tämä uutinen oli tärkeä. The verb olla (to be) is irregular, so you don't need to worry about applying the past tense consonant gradation rules you are currently studying to it!
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