Breakdown of Olen tyytyväinen, sillä kuulin majoituksen varatun.
olla
to be
varata
to book
kuulla
to hear
sillä
for / because (coordinating)
majoitus
the accommodation
tyytyväinen
satisfied
Questions & Answers about Olen tyytyväinen, sillä kuulin majoituksen varatun.
How does varatun replace an että (that) clause here?
This sentence uses the past passive referative construction. Instead of saying kuulin, että majoitus oli varattu (I heard that the accommodation was booked), Finnish compresses the clause. We take the past passive participle varattu (booked) and add the genitive ending -n, resulting in varatun.
Why is the word for accommodation, majoitus, in the genitive form majoituksen?
When you compress an että clause using the referative construction, the subject of that original clause gets forced into the genitive case. So, the basic noun majoitus becomes majoituksen.
How do we know varatun refers to a past action?
The base of varatun is the past passive participle varattu. This past-tense structure tells us the booking already happened. If you wanted to say you heard it IS being booked right now, you would use the present passive participle ending -tavan, making it varattavan.
Could I use koska instead of sillä in this sentence?
Yes! Both mean because or since. Sillä is slightly more formal or written in tone, translating well to the English conjunction for (as in I am satisfied, for I heard...). Koska is much more common in everyday spoken Finnish.
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