Word
Todistajalla oli motiivi, mutta häntä ei ollut kuulusteltu.
Meaning
The witness had a motive, but he had not been interrogated.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Todistajalla oli motiivi, mutta häntä ei ollut kuulusteltu.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
mutta
but
ei
no / not (negative verb)
Questions & Answers about Todistajalla oli motiivi, mutta häntä ei ollut kuulusteltu.
Why do we use ollut instead of the passive form oltu in ei ollut kuulusteltu?
This is a special rule for the negative pluperfect passive. Even though the main verb (kuulusteltu) is in the passive, the auxiliary verb olla must take the active past participle ollut. It is a common trap for learners to guess "ei oltu kuulusteltu", but that is grammatically incorrect.
Why is the pronoun hän in the partitive form häntä?
In Finnish, the object of a negative sentence is always in the partitive case. Because the action of interrogating did not happen, the object pronoun hän (he/she) must become häntä.
Why is motiivi in the nominative case here instead of the partitive?
In a Finnish "have" sentence (like todistajalla oli), the thing possessed acts as the grammatical subject. Because a motive is a singular, countable thing, it takes the basic nominative case. If the sentence were negative ("The witness did not have a motive"), it would switch to the partitive.
How do we get the form kuulusteltu from the dictionary verb kuulustella?
kuulustella (to interrogate) is a type 3 verb. To form the passive past participle for type 3 verbs ending in -lla, you simply drop the final -a and add -tu, resulting in kuulusteltu.