Breakdown of Uusi laki sallii sen.
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
uusi
new
laki
the law
sallia
to allow
Questions & Answers about Uusi laki sallii sen.
This lesson is about the passive voice, but this sentence uses the active verb sallii. How would we say the passive "It is allowed" instead?
To say "It is allowed", you would use the passive present form sallitaan. Because the Finnish passive implies an unknown human doer, we usually cannot add "by the law" to a passive sentence. That is why Finnish often prefers the active voice, like Uusi laki sallii sen, when the doer is a non-human thing like a law or a rule.
Why is "it" translated as sen here, rather than the basic form se or the partitive sitä?
Sen is the accusative case object, which takes the same -n ending as the genitive case. Because the sentence has a clear subject (Uusi laki) and the verb describes a total, complete action, the object takes this -n ending. If the sentence were negative ("The new law doesn't allow it"), the object would change to the partitive case: Uusi laki ei salli sitä.
What verb type is sallii and how is it formed?
The dictionary form is sallia (to allow), which is a Type 1 verb. To make the 3rd person singular ("he/she/it allows"), we take the stem (salli-) and double the final vowel, which gives us sallii.
Does the word laki (law) undergo consonant gradation when we add case endings?
Yes! The strong stem is laki-, but in the weak stem the k disappears, making it lai-. So while this sentence uses the basic strong form laki, saying "in the law" would use the weak stem: laissa.
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