Breakdown of Linnan muuri ja sen kaari olisi tuhottu.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
ja
and
linna
castle
tuhota
to destroy
muuri
the wall
kaari
the arch
Questions & Answers about Linnan muuri ja sen kaari olisi tuhottu.
How do you build the conditional perfect passive seen in olisi tuhottu?
It uses the conditional form of the verb olla (to be), which is olisi, plus the past passive participle of the main verb (tuhottu). In passive structures, the helper verb is always exactly olisi regardless of who or what is involved.
The sentence mentions two things (a wall and an arch). Why does it use olisi instead of a plural form like olisivat?
Why are the objects muuri (wall) and kaari (arch) in their basic nominative form, rather than taking an object marker like -n?
When a whole object is acted upon by a passive verb, it takes the nominative case instead of the normal accusative -n ending. Because olisi tuhottu is a passive verb structure, the items being destroyed stay in their basic dictionary forms.
What is the base verb for tuhottu, and how is this passive form made?
It comes from tuhota (to destroy), which is a Type 4 verb ending in -ta. To form the past passive participle for this verb type, you drop the final -a/-ä and add -ttu/-tty. This gives us tuhottu.
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