Breakdown of Uskomme lennonjohdon näkevän lentokoneen tutkassa.
nähdä
to see
uskoa
to believe
lentokone
airplane
lennonjohto
air traffic control
tutka
radar
Questions & Answers about Uskomme lennonjohdon näkevän lentokoneen tutkassa.
How does the present active referative construction work in this sentence?
Instead of using an että (that) clause like että lennonjohto näkee, Finnish compresses it. The subject of the sub-clause (lennonjohto) gets the genitive ending -n to become lennonjohdon. The verb (nähdä) changes into the present active participle ending in -van/-vän, giving us näkevän.
Why is lentokoneen in the genitive form?
It is the object of the participle näkevän. Even though näkevän is part of a special construction, it still acts like a verb here and takes an object. Because the air traffic control sees the entire airplane, the object takes the total object case, which looks identical to the genitive.
Could I just say Uskomme, että lennonjohto näkee lentokoneen tutkassa?
Yes, absolutely! Both mean the exact same thing. The että clause is more common in everyday spoken Finnish. The näkevän construction (partisiippirakenne) is more compact and very common in news, literature, and formal written language.
Why does tutkassa use the -ssa (in) ending when the English translation says on the radar?
Languages conceptualize technology differently. In Finnish, you see things in a radar, a TV, or a photograph, so you use the inessive case (tutkassa). English prefers to say you see things on a radar or a screen.
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