Breakdown of Meidän piti evakuoida kaupunki tulvan takia.
me
we
kaupunki
city
pitää
must / have to
takia
because of
evakuoida
to evacuate
tulva
flood
Questions & Answers about Meidän piti evakuoida kaupunki tulvan takia.
Why is the subject Meidän in the genitive case instead of the basic form Me?
In Finnish, sentences expressing obligation or necessity use a special structure. The person who has to do something is put in the genitive case. So, me (we) becomes meidän.
How does piti work here to mean 'had to'?
The verb pitää has several meanings, but when used with a genitive subject, it acts as a necessity verb meaning 'must' or 'to have to'. Piti is its past tense form ('had to'). In these necessity structures, the verb is always frozen in the 3rd person singular form, so it is just piti rather than matching the 'we' subject.
Why is the object kaupunki in its basic nominative form, rather than kaupungin or kaupunkia?
This is one of the trickiest rules in Finnish! Normally, when you do something to a whole object, it takes the genitive form (which would look like kaupungin). However, in a necessity sentence where the subject is already in the genitive case (like meidän), a whole object must be put in the basic nominative form instead. Since the entire city was evacuated, it is simply kaupunki.
Why does tulva (flood) change to tulvan before takia?
The word takia is a postposition meaning 'because of'. Almost all Finnish postpositions require the noun that comes right before them to be in the genitive case. Therefore, the basic word tulva takes an 'n' to become tulvan.
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