Breakdown of Hänet vietiin vankilaan.
viedä
to take (away, somewhere) / to take (time), require
hänet
him / her
vankila
prison
Questions & Answers about Hänet vietiin vankilaan.
How is the passive past formed in vietiin?
The verb is viedä (to take away). For verb type 2 words like this, you drop the -dä to get the stem vie-, and then add the past passive ending -tiin. This gives us vietiin (was taken).
Why is the word for "he" written as hänet and not just hän?
In passive sentences, the object (the person or thing the action happens to) usually stays in its basic dictionary form. However, personal pronouns are a major exception! They always take their special -t accusative ending when they are the object. That is why hän becomes hänet here.
Why use the verb viedä here instead of ottaa for "to take"?
In Finnish, ottaa means to take something to yourself or pick something up. Viedä means to transport, carry, or lead someone or something away to a destination. Since the person is being transported to a prison, viedä is the correct verb to use.
How does vankilaan express "to prison"?
It is in the illative case, which expresses movement "into" a place. The basic word is vankila (prison). To show movement into it, we double the last vowel and add -n, making it vankilaan (into prison).
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