Breakdown of Poliisi ei liene tiennyt salaliitosta.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (negative verb)
tietää
to know
poliisi
the police / police officer
Questions & Answers about Poliisi ei liene tiennyt salaliitosta.
How does the negative perfect potential structure work in ei liene tiennyt?
It is built with three parts. First, the third-person negative verb ei. Second, liene, which is the potential connegative form of the auxiliary verb olla. Third, the active past participle of the main verb tietää, which is tiennyt. Together this structure expresses that something probably did not happen in the past.
Since we are using the potential mood, why isn't the main verb tietää in a potential form?
In the perfect potential tense, the potential mood is carried entirely by the auxiliary verb olla (which becomes liene). The main verb only needs to be in its standard past participle form (tiennyt), exactly as it would be in the regular perfect tense (ei ole tiennyt). The uncertainty is fully expressed by the auxiliary verb.
Why is the word for conspiracy in the elative case (salaliitosta)?
The verb tietää (to know) requires the elative case (-sta or -stä) when you are talking about knowing about something. Here, the base word salaliitto takes the ending to become salaliitosta, meaning about the conspiracy.
In English, the police are usually treated as plural. Why does Finnish use the singular tiennyt here?