Breakdown of Poliisi syyttää miestä, sillä todiste on selkeä.
olla
to be
mies
man
poliisi
the police / police officer
selkeä
clear
todiste
evidence
sillä
for / because (coordinating)
syyttää
to accuse
Questions & Answers about Poliisi syyttää miestä, sillä todiste on selkeä.
Could I use koska instead of sillä in this sentence?
Yes, you could say ...koska todiste on selkeä. Both mean 'because', but they differ slightly. Sillä is a coordinating conjunction (like 'and' or 'but'), meaning it connects two independent main clauses. Koska is a subordinating conjunction, which introduces a dependent clause. In everyday spoken Finnish, koska is much more common, while sillä sounds a bit more formal or written.
Is the comma before sillä mandatory?
Yes. Because sillä connects two complete, independent clauses (Poliisi syyttää miestä and todiste on selkeä), Finnish grammar rules require a comma between them.
Why is the man in the partitive case (miestä) rather than the accusative?
The verb syyttää (to accuse) is a partitive verb. This means the person or thing you are accusing must always be in the partitive case. It helps to remember that expressing a feeling, attitude, or continuous action directed at someone often triggers the partitive in Finnish.
In English, we say 'the police accuse' as a plural, but the Finnish verb syyttää is singular here. Why?
In English, 'police' is a collective noun usually treated as plural. In Finnish, the institution of the police (poliisi) is grammatically singular, so it takes a singular verb. If you wanted to talk about several individual police officers, you would use the plural noun poliisit alongside the plural verb syyttävät.
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