Breakdown of Uhrit, jotka katosivat, olivat nuoria.
olla
to be
nuori
young
joka
who / which (relative pronoun)
kadota
to disappear
uhri
victim
Questions & Answers about Uhrit, jotka katosivat, olivat nuoria.
Why is the relative pronoun jotka used here instead of mitkä?
In Finnish, joka (and its plural jotka) refers back to a specific preceding noun—in this case, uhrit (the victims). You only use mikä or mitkä when referring to a whole preceding clause, a superlative, or undefined words like kaikki (everything) or mikään (nothing).
Why is the word for "young" in the partitive plural (nuoria) rather than the nominative plural (nuoret)?
When describing a plural subject (uhrit) using the verb olla (to be), the describing adjective is almost always in the partitive plural. This simply describes what kind of people they were. If you used the nominative plural (olivat nuoret), it would mean they were specifically "the young ones" out of a group.
The dictionary form of "to disappear" is kadota. Why does it have a t in katosivat?
Kadota is a Type 4 verb. These verbs undergo "reverse" consonant gradation. The infinitive form uses the weak consonant grade (with a d), but when you conjugate it, the consonant strengthens to a t. This gives us the basic conjugated stem katoa-.
How do we get from the stem katoa- to the past tense form katosivat?
To form the past tense (imperfect), we add the past tense marker -i- to the stem. When -i- is added to a stem ending in -oa, the final a drops out. This creates the past stem katosi-. Finally, the "they" ending -vat is added to match the plural subject uhrit.
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