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Questions & Answers about Metsästä löydettiin jälki.
Why does this sentence use metsästä (from the forest) when the English translation says "in the forest"?
In Finnish, verbs related to finding (löytää) and searching (etsiä) require a "from" location case. The logic is that you are discovering the trace and pulling that information out of the location, so you use the elative case ending -stä rather than the "in" ending -ssä.
How do you build the passive past verb löydettiin from the dictionary form löytää (to find)?
Löytää is a verb type 1. To make the passive past, you first find the weak stem by applying consonant gradation (t becomes d), giving you löydä-. For type 1 verbs, you then change the final -a or -ä to an -e- (giving you löyde-) and attach the passive past ending -ttiin.
Jälki is the object being found. Why is it in the basic dictionary form (nominative) instead of having an object ending like -n?
In Finnish, when a sentence is in the passive voice, the object (if it's a whole, singular thing) takes the basic nominative form. The typical -n accusative ending is dropped because there is no specific grammatical subject (doer) performing the action.
Could this sentence also mean "We found a trace in the forest"?