Breakdown of Ne uskoo tuota epätieteellistä huhua, koska ne on epävarmoja.
olla
to be
tuo
that
ne
they / those (non-human) / they (of people)
koska
because
uskoa
to believe
huhu
the rumor
epävarma
uncertain
epätieteellinen
unscientific
Questions & Answers about Ne uskoo tuota epätieteellistä huhua, koska ne on epävarmoja.
How does the prefix epä- work in epätieteellistä and epävarmoja?
The prefix epä- is used to create direct opposites (antonyms) of adjectives and nouns, similar to 'un-', 'in-', or 'non-' in English. Here, it turns tieteellinen (scientific) into epätieteellinen (unscientific), and varma (certain) into epävarma (uncertain).
Since epä- has front vowels (ä), does it change the vowel harmony of the root word?
No, it doesn't! Unlike suffixes, the prefix epä- does not force the rest of the word to change its vowel harmony. The root word keeps its original vowels. For example, varma has back vowels (a), so the plural partitive ending is -oja. Even with the front-vowel prefix, the word remains epävarmoja, not epävarmojä.
Why are the verbs in the singular form (uskoo, on) when the subject ne (they) is plural?
This is a very common feature of spoken Finnish. While standard written Finnish requires the plural forms he uskovat and he ovat, spoken Finnish almost always uses the pronoun ne for 'they' (instead of 'he') and pairs it with the third-person singular verb forms (ne uskoo, ne on).
Why is the object tuota epätieteellistä huhua in the partitive case?
The verb uskoa (to believe) requires the partitive case when you are believing a thing, a statement, or a rumor. All three words in the object phrase (the pronoun tuo, the adjective epätieteellinen, and the noun huhu) must match and take the partitive endings.
Why is the adjective epävarmoja in the partitive plural instead of the nominative plural (epävarmat)?
When an adjective describes a plural subject (like ne), it usually takes the partitive plural if it expresses a state, emotion, or characteristic of human subjects in a predicative sentence (A is B). Since being uncertain is a feeling or state, epävarmoja takes the partitive plural ending -oja.
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