Breakdown of Poliisi on etsimässä myrkkyä.
olla
to be
etsiä
to look for
poliisi
the police / police officer
myrkky
poison
Questions & Answers about Poliisi on etsimässä myrkkyä.
Why does the Finnish sentence use the singular verb on when the English translation says 'The police are'?
In Finnish, poliisi is a grammatically singular noun. It can refer to the police force as an institution or a single police officer, so it takes the singular verb on. In English, 'police' is treated as a plural noun. If you wanted to specifically refer to multiple individual officers in Finnish, you would use the plural form poliisit.
What is the form etsimässä, and why not just say Poliisi etsii?
This is the third infinitive (the -ma/-mä form) of the verb etsiä in the inessive case (-ssä). Using olla + the -massa/-mässä form creates a continuous structure that means someone is currently in the middle of doing something. Poliisi etsii is also correct and means 'The police look/are looking', but Poliisi on etsimässä strongly emphasizes that the search is happening right at this very moment.
Is myrkkyä in the partitive case here because it is a mass noun?
It is a mass noun, but that is not the main reason it takes the partitive here. It is in the partitive because it is the direct object of the verb etsiä (to look for/search). Etsiä is a partitive verb, meaning it always forces its object into the partitive case, regardless of whether that object is a mass noun like myrkkyä (poison) or a regular countable noun like koiraa (dog).
Wait, isn't myrkkyä a subject complement (predikatiivi) since it follows the verb olla (to be)?
It might look like it at first glance, but no. The main action here is the verb phrase on etsimässä (is searching). The word myrkkyä receives the action of searching, making it the direct object of etsiä. A subject complement would describe the subject itself, rather than receiving an action (for example, in the sentence Myrkky on vaarallista, 'vaarallista' is the subject complement).
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