Breakdown of Uusi perustus olisi rakennettu betonista ja teräksestä.
olla
to be
ja
and
uusi
new
rakentaa
to build
Questions & Answers about Uusi perustus olisi rakennettu betonista ja teräksestä.
How do we form the conditional perfect passive in this sentence?
It is formed by combining the third-person singular conditional of the verb to be (olisi) with the past passive participle of the main verb (rakennettu). Together, olisi rakennettu translates to "would have been built".
Why is "Uusi perustus" in the basic nominative case if it is the object being built?
In a standard active sentence, a complete singular object usually takes an -n ending (the accusative genitive). However, in Finnish passive sentences, this -n ending is dropped, leaving the object in the basic nominative case (Uusi perustus).
Why do the words for concrete and steel take the elative endings (-sta/-stä)?
The elative case (-sta or -stä) is used to express what material something is made out of. Just as in English you might build a foundation out of concrete, in Finnish you use the elative case to say betonista.
Why does "teräs" (steel) change to "teräkse-" before adding the ending?
Finnish nouns ending in a single vowel followed by -s belong to a specific word group that undergoes a stem change when endings are added. The -s changes to -kse-, which is why teräs becomes the stem teräkse- before adding the -stä ending.