Breakdown of Kestävä kehitys vähentää päästöjä.
päästö
emission
vähentää
to reduce
kestävä kehitys
sustainable development
Questions & Answers about Kestävä kehitys vähentää päästöjä.
How would we apply this lesson's grammar to say 'Emissions have not been reduced'?
You would say Päästöjä ei ole vähennetty. The perfect tense passive negative is formed with ei ole plus the passive past participle of the verb, which is vähennetty.
The word kestävä means 'sustainable'. How is this word formed?
It is built from the verb kestää, meaning 'to last' or 'to endure'. Adding the -vä ending creates a participle that describes something currently doing that action, so it literally means 'lasting'.
Why do we use the verb vähentää here instead of vähentyä?
Vähentää is a transitive verb, meaning somebody or something actively reduces an object. Here, development reduces emissions. Vähentyä is intransitive and means something decreases on its own, like in Päästöt vähentyvät (Emissions decrease).
Why is the object päästöjä in the partitive plural?
Because 'emissions' here refers to an undefined amount. Sustainable development reduces an ongoing, unmeasured quantity of emissions, which triggers the partitive plural ending -jä.
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