Breakdown of Pomo löytäisi syyllisen, jos hän näkisi huonon käytöksen.
hän
he / she
huono
bad
löytää
to find
nähdä
to see
pomo
boss
jos
if
käytös
behavior
syyllinen
guilty
Questions & Answers about Pomo löytäisi syyllisen, jos hän näkisi huonon käytöksen.
Why does löytäisi have a "t" when the present tense "I find" is löydän with a "d"?
This is because of how the conditional mood interacts with consonant gradation. Consonant gradation depends on whether a syllable is "closed" (ends in a consonant) or "open" (ends in a vowel). The present tense löy-dän is closed by the "n", so it takes the weak grade "d". The conditional marker -isi adds vowels that keep the syllable open (löy-täi-si). Open syllables take the strong grade, which is why the strong "t" from the dictionary form löytää comes back!
Where does the "k" in näkisi come from if the dictionary form is nähdä (to see)?
To form the conditional for Verb Type 2 words like nähdä, you start with their strong vowel stem. The strong stem of nähdä is näke- (just like in hän näkee, "he sees"). When you add the conditional -isi, the final -e- from the stem is dropped so you don't end up with three vowels in a row, giving us näkisi.
Why do syyllisen, huonon, and käytöksen all end in -n?
These words are the total objects of the sentence—the specific things being found and seen. In a normal, positive sentence like this, a complete object takes the accusative case, which looks identical to the genitive -n ending. Remember that adjectives like huono (bad) must always take the exact same ending as the noun they describe!
How does the word for "behavior" change from käytös to käytöksen?
Käytös belongs to a specific group of Finnish words that end in -s. When you need to add an ending to these words, the -s changes to -kse- to form the stem. First käytös becomes the stem käytökse-, and then we add the -n object ending to get käytöksen.
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