Learn Finnish: Minä muistan ne vuodet, joina ihmisillä ei ollut äänioikeutta. - I remember those years during which people did not have the right to vote.

Minä muistan ne vuodet, joina ihmisillä ei ollut äänioikeutta.

I remember those years during which people did not have the right to vote.

Breakdown of Minä muistan ne vuodet, joina ihmisillä ei ollut äänioikeutta.

olla

to be

minä

they / those (non-human) / they (of people)

no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)

Questions & Answers about Minä muistan ne vuodet, joina ihmisillä ei ollut äänioikeutta.

Why is the relative pronoun joina used here instead of a form like joissa?

joina is the essive plural form of the relative pronoun joka. It refers back to the plural word vuodet (the years). The essive case (which uses the -na ending) is used for expressions of time to mean 'during a time' or 'on a given day', just like in tänä vuonna (this year) or perjantaina (on Friday).

Why is vuodet in its basic plural form rather than the partitive case?

The verb muistaa (to remember) takes a total object when you remember specific, complete things. Because you are remembering a specific, defined set of years, ne vuodet takes the regular plural ending -t instead of being in the partitive case.

Why is the verb ei ollut in the singular when the possessor ihmisillä (people) is plural?

In Finnish 'to have' structures, the verb olla is always in the third-person singular, regardless of whether the owner or the thing owned is plural. The literal structure is 'On the people did not be', so the verb remains singular as ei ollut.

Why is äänioikeutta in the partitive case?