Word
Historiallista arkkitehtuuria ei tuhottaisi ilman hyvää syytä.
Meaning
Historical architecture would not be destroyed without a good reason.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Historiallista arkkitehtuuria ei tuhottaisi ilman hyvää syytä.
hyvä
good
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
syy
reason
ilman
without
Questions & Answers about Historiallista arkkitehtuuria ei tuhottaisi ilman hyvää syytä.
How do we form the negative passive conditional ei tuhottaisi in this sentence?
It comes from the verb tuhota (to destroy, verb type 4). To make the negative passive conditional, you take the positive form tuhottaisiin (would be destroyed) and remove the final -in. Then add the negative word ei, giving us ei tuhottaisi.
Why is there a double 't' in tuhottaisi?
In verb type 4 verbs like tuhota, the passive stem is formed by adding -tt-. The stem becomes tuhotta-. We then add the conditional -isi- marker to get tuhottaisiin for the positive, and drop the -in for the negative ei tuhottaisi.
Why is historiallista arkkitehtuuria in the partitive case?
Although it translates as the subject in English, it is grammatically the object of the Finnish passive sentence (the thing being destroyed). Because the sentence is negative (ei tuhottaisi), the object must be in the partitive case.
What dictates the case of hyvää syytä at the end of the sentence?
It is dictated by ilman (without). This word acts as a preposition that requires the noun phrase following it to be in the partitive case, which turns hyvä syy (a good reason) into hyvää syytä.