Breakdown of Hänen olisi täytynyt käyttää sammutinta.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
täytyä
to have to
käyttää
to use
sammutin
fire extinguisher
Questions & Answers about Hänen olisi täytynyt käyttää sammutinta.
How does olisi täytynyt translate to "should have"?
Täytyä means "to have to" or "must". To talk about an unfulfilled obligation in the past (something you "should have" done but didn't), Finnish uses the conditional perfect. We combine the conditional 3rd-person singular of the verb olla (olisi) with the past participle of the obligation verb (täytynyt). Literally, it translates to "It would have been necessary".
Why is the subject Hänen instead of Hän?
Necessity sentences require their logical subject to be in the genitive case. This fundamental rule for verbs like täytyä and pitää remains exactly the same even when the verb is put into a complex tense like the conditional perfect.
Could I use the verb pitää here instead?
Yes! You could say Hänen olisi pitänyt käyttää sammutinta. Both olisi täytynyt and olisi pitänyt are completely interchangeable in this context and mean exactly the same thing.
Why is the fire extinguisher in the partitive case (sammutinta)?
Normally, a total object in a necessity sentence looks like the basic nominative case. However, the verb käyttää (to use) is a partitive verb. This means it requires its object to be in the partitive case, and this specific verb rule overrides the general necessity sentence rule.
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