Breakdown of Kysyimme, oliko kulta kätketty temppeliin.
olla
to be
kysyä
to ask
kulta
gold
temppeli
the temple
kätkeä
to hide (conceal, e.g. a secret or treasure)
Questions & Answers about Kysyimme, oliko kulta kätketty temppeliin.
How is the pluperfect passive formed in this sentence?
The pluperfect passive translates to "had been done". It is formed using the 3rd person singular past tense of olla (oli) plus the passive past participle of the main verb (here, kätketty). Notice that the auxiliary verb is oli, not a passive form.
Why does the sentence use oliko instead of jos for the word "if"?
In Finnish, jos is only used for conditionals (like "If it rains"). For indirect questions meaning "whether" or "if" (like "We asked if"), you must attach the question clitic -ko or -kö to the verb. Here, oli + -ko becomes oliko.
The English translation says "in the temple". Why is temppeliin in the illative (into) case?
Verbs that involve putting, leaving, or hiding something somewhere, like kätkeä (to hide), require the location to be in a destination case in Finnish. The action is thought of as moving the object into a hiding place, so we use the illative case temppeliin rather than the inessive temppelissä.
Why is the object kulta in the basic nominative case?
In standard Finnish passive sentences, a whole object is put into the nominative case rather than the genitive-accusative. Since the gold is the complete target of the action, kulta takes its basic dictionary form.
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