Breakdown of Nyt ne kääntää esitystä.
nyt
now
ne
they / those (non-human) / they (of people)
esitys
presentation / performance / show
kääntää
to translate
Questions & Answers about Nyt ne kääntää esitystä.
Why does the verb kääntää look like it is in the singular when the subject ne means 'they'?
In everyday spoken Finnish, the pronoun ne (they) takes the 3rd person singular form of the verb. The standard written form is he kääntävät, but you will almost always hear ne kääntää in real life.
Why is the word for presentation in the partitive case (esitystä)?
The partitive case is used because the action is ongoing and not yet complete. If the sentence meant they were translating the entire presentation to completion, the object would take the genitive form: esityksen.
Spoken Finnish often replaces standard verb forms with the passive. Why isn't a passive form used here?
Spoken Finnish replaces standard verbs with the passive form only for the 'we' pronoun (me käännetään). For 'they', it uses ne plus the 3rd person singular. It is a common mistake for learners to try applying the 'we' passive rule to 'they'!
Since this lesson focuses on the perfect tense passive, how would you change this sentence to say 'Now the presentation has been translated'?
You would say Nyt esitys on käännetty. Notice that in this perfect passive form, the object becomes the basic nominative esitys, rather than the partitive esitystä used for the ongoing active action.
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