Breakdown of Työntekijän on pakko noudattaa määräyksiä.
olla
to be
työntekijä
the employee
noudattaa
to comply with
määräys
the regulation
pakko
compulsion, a must
Questions & Answers about Työntekijän on pakko noudattaa määräyksiä.
The lesson is about the 'on + passive present participle' structure. Why does this sentence use 'on pakko noudattaa' instead of 'on noudatettava'?
Both structures express obligation. While the lesson's target structure like työntekijän on noudatettava is a bit more formal and translates to 'the employee must follow', the structure here using on pakko + first infinitive is slightly stronger, meaning 'the employee is forced to follow'. Both are extremely common and use the exact same subject rules.
Why is the word for employee in the genitive case (työntekijän)?
In Finnish, almost all necessity structures, including on pakko, täytyy, and the on tehtävä structure you are currently learning, require the subject (the person who must do something) to be in the genitive case. You can think of it literally as 'it is of the employee a necessity to follow'.
Why is the object määräyksiä in the partitive case?
The verb noudattaa (to follow or comply with) is a partitive verb. This means it always forces its object into the partitive case, regardless of the grammar structure of the rest of the sentence. Here, the plural partitive ending -iä is attached to the base word määräys.
If we used a regular non-partitive verb here, what case would the object be in?
It would be in the nominative case. A special rule for necessity structures (like on pakko, täytyy, or on tehtävä) is that complete objects look like the nominative, not the normal genitive-accusative. For example, 'must buy a book' is on pakko ostaa kirja (not kirjan). However, because noudattaa requires the partitive, that necessity object rule is overridden here.
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