Breakdown of Nämä jälkeläiset lienevät kätkeneet symbolin luolaan.
tämä
this
olla
to be
luola
cave
kätkeä
to hide (conceal, e.g. a secret or treasure)
Questions & Answers about Nämä jälkeläiset lienevät kätkeneet symbolin luolaan.
How is the potential perfect formed in lienevät kätkeneet?
The potential perfect describes something that probably happened in the past. It uses the potential form of the auxiliary verb olla (here, the 3rd-person plural lienevät) plus the active past participle of the main verb (the plural NUT-participle kätkeneet).
Why do both parts of the verb, lienevät and kätkeneet, take a plural marker?
Just like in the standard perfect tense, the auxiliary verb and the past participle must both agree with a plural subject. Since the subject is Nämä jälkeläiset (These descendants), the auxiliary lienee becomes lienevät and the participle kätkenyt becomes kätkeneet.
Why is symbolin in the genitive-looking accusative case instead of the partitive?
The verb kätkeä (to hide) expresses a completed action. Because the descendants succeeded in hiding the entire symbol, it takes the total object case. For a singular noun like symboli, the total object takes the ending -n, making it look identical to the genitive case.
The English translation says "in the cave", but luolaan is the illative "into" case. Why not use luolassa?