Breakdown of Pahimmassa pakkasessa koira ei olisi selviytynyt ilman suojaa.
olla
to be
koira
dog
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
paha
bad (evil, severe)
ilman
without
suoja
the shelter
selviytyä
to survive
pakkanen
the subzero temperature
Questions & Answers about Pahimmassa pakkasessa koira ei olisi selviytynyt ilman suojaa.
How do we form the negative conditional perfect in the phrase ei olisi selviytynyt?
You need three parts: the negative verb (ei), the conditional form of the auxiliary verb to be (olisi), and the active past participle of the main verb (selviytynyt). Notice how olisi does not take any personal endings here because the subject's person is already shown by the negative verb ei.
Where does the form pahimmassa come from?
It is the inessive (in/inside) case of pahin, which is the superlative of paha (bad). When adding endings to superlatives that end in -in, the stem changes to -imma- (due to consonant gradation). So pahin plus the ending -ssa becomes pahimmassa (in the worst).
Why is the word for shelter (suoja) in the partitive case (suojaa)?
It is because of the word ilman (without). In Finnish, ilman is a preposition that requires the noun immediately following it to be in the partitive case.
Is the verb selviytyä (to survive) related to the adjective selvä (clear)?
Yes! The verb selviytyä (which gives us the past participle selviytynyt) is derived from selvä. You can conceptually think of its meaning as getting yourself clear of a difficult situation or clearing a hurdle.
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