Breakdown of Oletko jo katsonut tätä uutta kangasta?
tämä
this
olla
to be
uusi
new
katsoa
to watch
jo
already
kangas
fabric
Questions & Answers about Oletko jo katsonut tätä uutta kangasta?
How do we form the past participle katsonut?
Katsonut comes from the Type 1 verb katsoa (to look / to watch). To make the active past participle for Type 1 verbs, you take the dictionary form, drop the final -a or -ä, and add -nut or -nyt. Here, katsoa drops the -a and adds -nut.
Why do we have both olet and katsonut in this sentence?
Together, olet ... katsonut form the perfect tense, which translates to "have you looked" in English. In Finnish, you build the perfect tense by using the verb olla (to be) as a helper verb, followed by the main verb in its past participle form (-nut or -nyt). The question particle -ko is attached to olet to make it a question.
Why is the phrase tätä uutta kangasta in the partitive case?
The verb katsoa is a "partitive verb," meaning the object it affects must usually be in the partitive case. Because you are looking at the fabric, "this new fabric" (tämä uusi kangas) must become tätä uutta kangasta.
What is the base form of uutta, and why does it look so different?
The base form is uusi (new). In Finnish, many older words ending in -si change that ending to -tta or -ttä when put into the partitive case. Therefore, uusi becomes uutta.
How does the noun kangas become kangasta?
The base form is kangas (fabric/cloth). For words ending in -as or -äs, you form the partitive by simply adding -ta or -tä directly to the basic dictionary form. So, kangas + -ta = kangasta.
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