Breakdown of En tiedä, olimmeko niin uupuneita, että emme huomanneet sumua.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
tietää
to know
niin
so
että
that (conjunction)
huomata
to notice
sumu
fog
uupunut
exhausted
Questions & Answers about En tiedä, olimmeko niin uupuneita, että emme huomanneet sumua.
How does the niin ... että structure work in this sentence?
It translates exactly to the English 'so ... that'. In this sentence, niin (so) modifies the adjective uupuneita (exhausted), and että (that) introduces the consequence of that exhaustion: they didn't notice the fog.
Why does the verb olimme have the question ending -ko if this isn't a direct question?
In Finnish, you use the question clitic -ko or -kö to express 'if' or 'whether' in indirect questions. By adding it to the past tense verb olimme (we were), it translates to 'if we were' or 'whether we were'.
Why is the word for exhausted in the form uupuneita?
Uupunut is a participle working as an adjective here. Because the subject of the sentence is plural ('we'), the adjective must also be plural. When describing plural subjects with the verb olla (to be), the adjective takes the partitive plural form, which is uupuneita.
Why is the main verb huomanneet rather than a normal past tense conjugation?
This is the negative past tense. To say 'we did not notice', you use the conjugated negative verb emme plus the past participle of the main verb. For plural subjects, that participle ends in -neet, making it huomanneet.
Why is the object sumua (the fog) in the partitive case?
In Finnish, objects of negative sentences must be in the partitive case. Because the action of noticing didn't happen (emme huomanneet), the base word sumu takes the partitive ending -a.
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