Breakdown of Eikö juttu ollut typerä?
olla
to be
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
juttu
the story
typerä
stupid
Questions & Answers about Eikö juttu ollut typerä?
How do we form the 'Wasn't...?' part of this question?
By attaching the question ending -kö directly to the negative verb ei, making eikö. A normal statement would be Juttu ei ollut typerä (The story wasn't stupid). To turn it into a negative question, we just add -kö to ei and move it to the very front of the sentence.
Why is the question ending -kö instead of -ko on the word eikö?
It is because of vowel harmony. The negative verb ei contains only the front vowels e and i, so it requires the front-vowel version of the question ending, which is -kö.
Why is the verb 'to be' written as ollut instead of oli (was)?
Because this is a past tense negative question. In Finnish, you form the negative past tense using the negative verb (ei) plus the past participle form of the main verb (ollut). Even though the subject juttu sits between them here, eikö ... ollut is just the question form of ei ollut (was not).
Why does the subject juttu sit right in the middle of eikö and ollut?