Breakdown of He eivät löytäneet onnellisuutta.
he
they
ei
no / not (negative verb)
löytää
to find
onnellisuus
the happiness
Questions & Answers about He eivät löytäneet onnellisuutta.
How do we get the noun onnellisuus (happiness) from the adjective onnellinen (happy)?
To make abstract nouns from adjectives ending in -nen, you drop the -nen and add -suus (or -syys, depending on vowel harmony). So, taking the stem onnelli- and adding -suus creates onnellisuus.
Why does the suffix become -suus when the lesson focuses on the -uus or -yys suffix?
The base suffix is indeed -uus or -yys (for example, vanha meaning old becomes vanhuus meaning old age). However, adjectives ending in -nen follow a special pattern where the suffix takes the form -suus or -syys. Since there are many -nen adjectives in Finnish, you will use this specific pattern a lot!
Why is the object onnellisuutta in the partitive case here? Is it just because happiness is an abstract concept?
While abstract nouns often do take the partitive case, there is a much stricter rule overriding everything here: the sentence is negative (eivät löytäneet). In Finnish, the object of a negative sentence must always be in the partitive case, no matter what kind of word it is.
Why does the main verb löytäneet end in -t when the negative verb eivät already shows the subject is plural?
In the negative past tense, the main verb takes a past participle form that must agree with the subject's number. Because the subject he (they) is plural, you have to use the plural form löytäneet instead of the singular form löytänyt.
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