Breakdown of Etsivä selvitti murhan nopeasti.
nopeasti
fast
selvittää
to solve
etsivä
detective
murha
murder
Questions & Answers about Etsivä selvitti murhan nopeasti.
Wait, isn't etsivä a participle meaning 'searching'? How does it mean 'detective'?
Yes, etsivä is the active present participle of the verb etsiä (to search). Like many participles in Finnish, it has become an established noun in its own right, literally meaning 'one who searches' or 'detective'.
Why is the object murhan ending in -n here instead of being in the partitive case?
The verb selvittää (to solve) takes a total object when an action is completed. Because the detective completely solved the murder, the object murha takes the -n ending (the accusative case). If the detective were still in the process of solving it, you would use the partitive murhaa.
How is the past tense selvitti formed from the verb selvittää?
Selvittää is a type 1 verb with the vowel stem selvittä-. To form the past tense (imperfect), we add the past tense marker -i. When -i is added, the final -ä of the stem is dropped, resulting in selvitti.
How do you form the adverb nopeasti?
You take the base adjective nopea (fast or quick) and add the adverb suffix -sti, which acts like the English '-ly'.
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