Breakdown of Lumi oli sulanut, ja katu oli kuivunut.
olla
to be
ja
and
katu
street
lumi
the snow
sulaa
to melt
kuivua
to dry (intransitive, to become dry)
Questions & Answers about Lumi oli sulanut, ja katu oli kuivunut.
How is the pluperfect tense formed in oli sulanut and oli kuivunut?
The pluperfect (pluskvamperfekti) expresses an action that had happened before another past event. You form it by combining the past tense of the auxiliary verb olla (here, oli) with the past active participle of your main verb. For singular subjects, this participle ends in -nut or -nyt.
Why do the main verbs end in -nut and not -neet?
The past active participle must agree with the subject's number. Because both lumi (snow) and katu (street) are singular, the singular ending -nut is used. If the subjects were plural, you would use the plural ending -neet (for example, kadut olivat kuivuneet).
Why use sulaa and kuivua here instead of sulattaa and kuivata?
Finnish uses different verbs depending on whether an action happens on its own (intransitive) or someone does it to an object (transitive). Sulaa and kuivua are intransitive, meaning the snow melts and the street dries on their own. If someone were actively melting the ice or drying the street, you would use the transitive verbs sulattaa and kuivata.
Why is there a comma before the word ja?
In Finnish, you must place a comma before ja (and) when it connects two complete, independent clauses that have different subjects. Since the first clause is about lumi and the second is about katu, the comma is required. If they shared the same subject, the comma would be left out.
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