Breakdown of Katu ei tyhjennyt, vaikka satoi lunta.
katu
street
ei
no / not (negative verb)
sataa
to rain
lumi
the snow
vaikka
although / even though
tyhjetä
to empty (become empty)
Questions & Answers about Katu ei tyhjennyt, vaikka satoi lunta.
How do we form the past negative verb "ei tyhjennyt"?
This is the past negative of the Verb Type 6 verb tyhjetä. To form the past negative, we use the negative verb (ei) plus the past active participle. For Type 6 verbs, you simply drop the -ta/-tä from the infinitive and add -nnut/-nnyt. So tyhjetä becomes tyhjennyt.
Does "tyhjetä" mean "to empty something" or "to become empty"?
It means "to become empty". Verb Type 6 verbs often describe a change of state and are usually intransitive (they don't take an object). It is derived from the adjective tyhjä (empty). If you wanted to say "I empty the street", you would use the transitive Verb Type 1 equivalent: tyhjentää.
Why is there no word for "it" in "satoi lunta"?
In Finnish, weather expressions do not use a "dummy pronoun" like "it" in English. You simply use the verb in the third-person singular. So, "it snowed" is just the verb satoi.
Why is "lunta" (snow) in the partitive case here?
When using the verb sataa (to rain/fall), the substance that is falling acts grammatically like an object. Because snow is an uncountable mass, it must be in the partitive case. The nominative lumi becomes the partitive lunta.
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