Breakdown of Hän muutti pois lapsuudenkodista puoli vuotta sitten.
hän
he / she
vuosi
year
puoli
half
pois
away
sitten
ago
muuttaa
to move (relocate)
lapsuudenkoti
childhood home
Questions & Answers about Hän muutti pois lapsuudenkodista puoli vuotta sitten.
Why is vuotta in the partitive case here instead of the genitive?
The postposition sitten (ago) requires the time expression to be in the nominative or partitive case. Because we are saying half a year (puoli vuotta), the word puoli forces the word for year (vuosi) into the partitive case (vuotta). If we used kuluttua (in/after) instead of sitten, the whole time phrase would have to be in the genitive case (puolen vuoden kuluttua).
How is the compound word lapsuudenkodista formed?
It combines lapsuuden (the genitive form of lapsuus, meaning childhood) and koti (home). It takes the elative ending -sta (out of) because in Finnish, moving away from a home is expressed as moving 'out of' it. Notice that koti changes to kodi- before the ending due to consonant gradation (t becomes d).
Could I drop the word pois and just say muutti lapsuudenkodista?
Yes, that is grammatically correct and means 'He moved from his childhood home.' Adding the word pois (away) simply adds emphasis to the act of leaving, making the phrase sound very natural and complete in Finnish.
Why is puoli in its base form while vuotta changes?
In Finnish, puoli (half) acts exactly like a number. Just like the numbers from two upwards, it stays in its base form (the nominative) in this kind of time expression with sitten, and it forces the noun that follows it into the partitive singular.
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