Questions & Answers about Valtion rahaa käytetään paljon.
How do we build the passive verb käytetään from the dictionary form käyttää?
First, find the weak stem of käyttää (to use), which is käytä-. Then, add the passive marker -tä- (used when the stem ends in a single vowel). Finally, add the passive ending -Vn (which means doubling the last vowel and adding n), giving us -än. Put it all together: käytetään (is used).
Why is rahaa (money) in the partitive case instead of the nominative?
In an English passive sentence, 'money' acts as the subject. But in Finnish, the thing being acted upon in a passive sentence is grammatically the object. Because raha is an uncountable mass noun (you cannot count 'one money, two moneys'), it must be in the partitive case (rahaa) when it is the object.
Could this sentence also mean 'We use a lot of the state's money'?
Yes! In everyday spoken Finnish, the passive form is frequently used to mean 'we do' something. If someone says this in casual conversation, it could definitely mean 'we use', especially if they added the pronoun me (we) in front of it. In formal writing without me, it strictly means the passive 'is used'.
Why does the word valtio (state) change to valtion here?
Valtion is in the genitive case, which shows possession. Just like adding an apostrophe-s in English, adding the -n changes 'state' to 'the state's' to show exactly whose money is being used.
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