Breakdown of Muinainen temppeli oli tuhottu sodassa.
olla
to be
sota
war
muinainen
ancient
temppeli
the temple
tuhota
to destroy
Questions & Answers about Muinainen temppeli oli tuhottu sodassa.
Why does the passive pluperfect use oli instead of a passive form like oltiin?
In the pluperfect passive, the auxiliary verb olla is always in the active 3rd person singular past tense, which is oli. The passive meaning comes entirely from the second word, the passive past participle tuhottu.
If temppeli is the object being destroyed, why is it in the basic nominative form instead of taking an object ending like -n?
In a passive sentence, a total object (an entire thing that is completely affected) is put in the nominative case. Because the sentence is passive, the object temppeli stays in its basic form rather than becoming temppelin.
How do we form the passive past participle tuhottu from the dictionary form tuhota (to destroy)?
tuhota is a Type 4 verb. To form the passive past participle for Type 4 verbs, you take the infinitive, drop the final -a or -ä, and add -ttu or -tty, which gives us tuhottu.
Why does the word for war, sota, become sodassa here?
Adding the inessive ending -ssa (in) closes the final syllable. This triggers consonant gradation, changing the strong t in sota to a weak d.
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