Breakdown of Luulin varausnumeron tarkistetun jo eilen.
eilen
yesterday
jo
already
luulla
to think, to suppose
tarkistaa
to check
Questions & Answers about Luulin varausnumeron tarkistetun jo eilen.
How does tarkistetun translate to 'was checked'?
This is the past passive form of the referative construction. It replaces an että (that) clause. Instead of saying että ... tarkistettiin (that ... was checked), we use the past passive participle tarkistettu and put it in the genitive case, ending up with tarkistetun.
Why is varausnumero (reservation number) in the genitive case (varausnumeron)?
In a referative construction, the subject of the embedded clause always changes to the genitive case. Because we squeezed the sentence into this compact form, the original subject varausnumero becomes varausnumeron.
What would this sentence look like if I just used a normal että (that) clause?
It would be: Luulin, että varausnumero tarkistettiin jo eilen. The referative construction is just a more advanced, compact way to express the exact same thing. It is very common after verbs of thinking, feeling, or saying, such as luulla (to think/assume).
How can I tell this is passive ('was checked') and not active ('had checked')?
The passive marker -tt- is the key here. The basic past passive participle is tarkistettu. If it were active ('I thought someone had checked'), it would use the active past participle tarkistanut, which in this construction becomes tarkistaneen (e.g., Luulin hänen tarkistaneen... = I thought he checked...).