Breakdown of Lajit ovat uhanalaisia, mutta niitä ei ole suojeltu.
olla
to be
mutta
but
ne
they / those (non-human) / they (of people)
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
uhanalainen
endangered
laji
species
suojella
to protect (e.g., a person, nature)
Questions & Answers about Lajit ovat uhanalaisia, mutta niitä ei ole suojeltu.
How is the perfect tense passive negative formed in ei ole suojeltu?
It is built with three parts: the negative verb ei, the auxiliary verb ole (which does not change), and the passive past participle of the main verb. Here, the main verb is suojella (to protect), and its passive past participle is suojeltu.
Why is the pronoun niitä in the partitive case here?
Niitä is the object of the second clause. Because the clause is negative (ei ole suojeltu), the object must be in the partitive case. It is the partitive plural of se (it/they), referring back to the species.
Why is uhanalaisia in the partitive plural, when the subject lajit is in the nominative plural?
In Finnish, when you describe a plural subject with the verb olla (to be), the describing adjective is almost always in the partitive plural. Uhanalainen becomes uhanalaisia.
Why does the passive form suojeltu end in a single -t- instead of a double -tt-?
Suojella (to protect) is a verb type 3. To form the passive past participle for type 3 verbs, you take the consonant stem (suojel-) and add -tu instead of -ttu. The double -tt- ending is mostly used for verb types 1 and 4.
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