Breakdown of Äiti huolestui huonoista uutisista.
huono
bad
äiti
mother
uutinen
news
huolestua
to get worried
Questions & Answers about Äiti huolestui huonoista uutisista.
Why does "about the bad news" translate to the elative case (huonoista uutisista)?
In Finnish, verbs expressing a reaction or a change of emotion, like huolestua (to get worried), require the cause of the emotion to be in the elative case (-sta/-stä). Think of it as getting worried "from" the news.
Could I say Äiti oli huolissaan huonoista uutisista instead? What is the difference?
Yes, but the meaning changes slightly. Olla huolissaan describes a continuous state (to be worried), while the verb huolestua describes a change of state (to get or become worried). The past tense huolestui highlights her immediate reaction upon hearing the news.
How do we build the form uutisista from the dictionary word uutinen (news)?
Words ending in -nen change their ending to -s- before adding most case suffixes. To make it plural, we add the plural marker -i-, and finally the elative ending -sta. The stem uutise- becomes the plural uutisi-, and adding the case ending gives us uutisista.
Why does the adjective huono (bad) also take the -ista ending?
In Finnish, adjectives must always match the noun they modify in both number (singular or plural) and case. Because uutisista is in the plural elative, huono must also take the plural marker -i- and the elative ending -sta, becoming huonoista.
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