Breakdown of Käyttäjän on päivitettävä ohjelma.
olla
to be
päivittää
to update
ohjelma
program
käyttäjä
user
Questions & Answers about Käyttäjän on päivitettävä ohjelma.
Why does päivitettävä translate to "must update" here?
Päivitettävä is the passive present participle of the verb päivittää (to update). When combined with the verb olla (here as on) and a subject in the genitive case (käyttäjän), it creates a necessity sentence. Literally, it means the program is to-be-updated by the user.
How is the form päivitettävä built from the basic verb?
To make the passive present participle, you take the passive present form of the verb, drop the final vowel and -n, and add -ava or -ävä. For päivittää, the passive is päivitetään. Dropping the -än leaves the stem päivitett-, to which you add -ävä.
Why is the subject käyttäjän in the genitive case?
In Finnish necessity structures, which express that someone must or has to do something, the person who has to do the action takes the genitive case. This rule applies to the -tava structure exactly as it does with familiar necessity verbs like täytyy or pitää.
Why is the object ohjelma in the basic nominative form rather than taking an -n at the end?
When a sentence has a necessity structure where the subject is in the genitive, a complete object takes the nominative case instead of the usual -n ending. Because the subject käyttäjän already took the -n marker, the object ohjelma remains in its base form.
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