Breakdown of Hän on pettynyt, että me emme ostaneet taloa.
olla
to be
talo
house
hän
he / she
me
we
ei
no / not (negative verb)
ostaa
to buy
että
that (conjunction)
pettynyt
disappointed
Questions & Answers about Hän on pettynyt, että me emme ostaneet taloa.
Do I always need a comma before että?
Yes. In Finnish grammar, a subordinate clause starting with että (that) must always be separated from the main clause by a comma. This rule is much stricter than in English!
Why is the word for house in the partitive case (taloa) here?
Because the action is negative. When you have a negative verb like emme ostaneet (we did not buy), the object of the sentence must be in the partitive case. If it were a positive sentence like 'we bought the house', it would be the total object talon.
How does the negative past tense work in me emme ostaneet?
To form the negative past tense, you use the conjugated negative verb (here, emme for 'we do not') and the past participle of the main verb. Because me (we) is plural, the past participle also has to be plural, ending in -eet to become ostaneet.
Is pettynyt an adjective or a verb?
It is acting as an adjective here meaning 'disappointed', but it originally comes from the verb pettyä (to be disappointed). It is the past participle form, very similar to how we add '-ed' to verbs to make adjectives in English.
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