Breakdown of Motiivia ei ollut tutkittu tarkasti.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (negative verb)
tutkia
to explore / to investigate / examine
tarkasti
carefully (closely, attentively)
Questions & Answers about Motiivia ei ollut tutkittu tarkasti.
Why is the auxiliary verb ei ollut used here instead of a passive form like ei oltu?
In standard Finnish, the perfect and pluperfect passive tenses use the active 3rd-person singular form of the auxiliary verb. Therefore, we use oli in the affirmative and ei ollut in the negative. Only the main verb (tutkittu) takes the passive participle form.
Why is motiivia in the partitive case instead of the nominative?
This is due to the negative sentence rule. In an affirmative passive sentence, the object is usually in the nominative case (Motiivi oli tutkittu = The motive had been examined). However, because this sentence is negative (ei ollut), the object must change to the partitive case (motiivia).
How do we form the passive past participle tutkittu from the verb tutkia?
Tutkia (to examine) is a verb type 1. To form its passive past participle, you take the infinitive stem (tutki-), add the strong passive marker -tt- (used for type 1 verbs ending in a single vowel), and then add the passive past participle ending -u.
Could I translate "carefully" as varovasti instead of tarkasti here?
Not in this context. While both can translate to "carefully" in English, varovasti means "carefully" in the sense of cautiously or gently (to avoid danger or breaking something). Tarkasti means "carefully" in the sense of precisely, closely, or thoroughly, which is the correct meaning when examining a motive.