Breakdown of Etkö kuullut herätyskelloa?
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
kuulla
to hear
herätyskello
alarm clock
Questions & Answers about Etkö kuullut herätyskelloa?
Why does the verb kuullut not have the past tense -i- marker?
In Finnish, the negative past tense doesn't use the -i- marker. Instead, it is formed using the negative verb (here, et for "you don't") plus the past participle form of the main verb, which ends in -nut, -nyt, -lut, or -lyt. For kuulla (to hear), that form is kuullut.
Can you attach the question particle -kö directly to the negative verb?
Yes! When asking a negative yes/no question like "Didn't you...?", the question particle (-ko or -kö) attaches directly to the negative verb. So et (you don't) becomes etkö (don't you / didn't you).
Why is the word for alarm clock, herätyskelloa, in the partitive case here?
In Finnish, if the verb is negative, the object of the sentence almost always has to be in the partitive case. Since you didn't hear it, the basic word herätyskello takes the partitive ending -a.
How is the word herätyskello formed?
It is a compound word. It is made of herätys (waking up or alarm) and kello (clock or watch), so it literally translates to "waking clock."
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