Learn Finnish: Laki kieltää sen heti. - The law forbids it immediately.

Laki kieltää sen heti.

The law forbids it immediately.

Breakdown of Laki kieltää sen heti.

it / he / she (of a person) / that

Questions & Answers about Laki kieltää sen heti.

This lesson is about the passive voice, but is kieltää passive?

No, kieltää is in the active voice! This sentence has a specific subject performing the action: laki (the law). It is likely included here so you can contrast it with the passive. The passive version, 'It is forbidden immediately,' would be Se kielletään heti.

Why is 'it' translated as sen here?

Because this is an active sentence with a subject (laki). When a complete action is done to an object in an active sentence, the object takes the genitive-like accusative case. For the pronoun se, that form is sen.

If I changed this sentence into the passive voice, would the object still be sen?

No, it would change to se. This is a very important rule in Finnish: passive sentences do not use the -n accusative for objects. If you drop the subject and make the verb passive ('It is forbidden immediately'), the total object takes the basic nominative form: Se kielletään heti.

What is the weak grade of the verb kieltää?