Breakdown of Ratkaisematon rikos on vanha tapaus.
olla
to be
vanha
old
tapaus
case
rikos
crime
ratkaisematon
unsolved
Questions & Answers about Ratkaisematon rikos on vanha tapaus.
How is the word ratkaisematon formed to mean "unsolved"?
It comes from the verb ratkaista (to solve). By taking the strong stem ratkaise- and adding the negative ending -maton, it becomes an adjective meaning "unsolved" or "incapable of being solved". This form is known as the negative participle.
Since this lesson covers the pluperfect passive negative, how would we say "The crime had not been solved"?
To use the actual pluperfect passive negative tense, you need ei ollut followed by the passive past participle. That would be Rikosta ei ollut ratkaistu. In our example sentence, ratkaisematon is just acting as a descriptive adjective rather than a full verb tense.
Why is rikos (crime) in the basic nominative form here instead of the partitive case?
Even though the word ratkaisematon has a passive meaning (unsolved by someone), this sentence is a simple "A is B" statement with the verb on (is). Because the sentence itself is not a true passive sentence, the subject rikos stays in the nominative case.
How does the word tapaus (case) change if we need to add grammatical endings to it?
Tapaus is one of the many Finnish words ending in -us. When adding endings, the stem changes to -ukse-. For example, if you wanted to say "in an old case", it would become vanhassa tapauksessa.
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