Breakdown of Vapaaehtoiset ovat tukeneet perhettä.
olla
to be
perhe
family
vapaaehtoinen
volunteer
tukea
to support
Questions & Answers about Vapaaehtoiset ovat tukeneet perhettä.
How is tukeneet formed from the dictionary form?
The dictionary form is tukea (to support), which is a Type 1 verb. To form the plural past participle, we take the strong stem tuke- and add the plural ending -neet, making tukeneet.
Why are we using ovat tukeneet here instead of just tukenut?
Because the subject vapaaehtoiset (the volunteers) is plural. In the perfect tense (have supported), plural subjects need the plural helper verb ovat and the plural past participle ending -neet on the main verb. If it were one volunteer, it would be on tukenut.
Why is the object perhettä in the partitive case?
What is the base form of vapaaehtoiset and how does it become plural?
The dictionary form is vapaaehtoinen (voluntary or volunteer). For words ending in -nen, that ending changes to -se- before adding grammatical endings. To make it a plural subject, we simply add the standard plural -t, giving us vapaaehtoiset.