Breakdown of Rikospaikkaa ei ollut siivottu ennen aamua.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
aamu
morning
siivota
to clean
ennen
before
rikospaikka
crime scene
Questions & Answers about Rikospaikkaa ei ollut siivottu ennen aamua.
Why does the helper verb use the active form ollut instead of the passive oltu in ei ollut siivottu?
In standard Finnish, the negative pluperfect passive uses the active past participle for the helper verb (ollut), alongside the passive past participle for the main verb (siivottu). You will often hear people say ei oltu siivottu in everyday speech, but ei ollut siivottu is the grammatically correct form for writing.
Why is the crime scene (rikospaikka) in the partitive case (rikospaikkaa)?
In Finnish, the object of a negative sentence must always be in the partitive case. Because the action did not happen (the scene was not cleaned), rikospaikka takes the partitive ending -a.
Why is the word for morning (aamu) also in the partitive case here (aamua)?
It is because of the word ennen (before). When ennen is used as a preposition placed in front of a noun, it always forces that following noun into the partitive case.
How do we get siivottu from the basic verb siivota (to clean)?
Siivota is a type 4 verb. To form the passive past participle for these verbs, you generally drop the final -a or -ä from the dictionary form and add -ttu or -tty. Here, siivota becomes siivottu.
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