Word
Hän ei pelännyt vanhuutta.
Meaning
He did not fear old age.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hän ei pelännyt vanhuutta.
hän
he / she
ei
no / not (negative verb)
pelätä
to fear
vanhuus
the old age
Questions & Answers about Hän ei pelännyt vanhuutta.
How do we get the abstract noun vanhuus from the adjective vanha?
To create an abstract noun meaning the state or quality of an adjective, Finnish adds the suffix -uus or -yys. Here, the adjective vanha (old) drops its final vowel -a and adds -uus, becoming vanhuus (old age).
Why does the dictionary form vanhuus change to vanhuutta here?
Nouns ending in the -uus or -yys suffix follow a specific pattern. When forming the partitive case, the partitive ending -ta is added in a way that causes the word to end in -uutta or -yyttä. So, the partitive form of vanhuus is vanhuutta.
Why must vanhuutta be in the partitive case?
The verb pelätä (to fear) is a partitive verb. This means the object you are fearing must always be in the partitive case, regardless of whether the action is completed, ongoing, positive, or negative.
How is the negative past tense formed in ei pelännyt?
To say someone did not do something, you use the conjugated negative verb (here, ei) plus the past participle of the main verb. Pelätä is a type 4 verb. To find its past participle, you take the infinitive stem pelä- and add -nnyt, resulting in pelännyt.