Breakdown of On vaikea uskoa, että tätä yleistä myyttiä ei liene kumottu.
tämä
this
olla
to be
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
vaikea
difficult / hard
että
that (conjunction)
uskoa
to believe
myytti
myth
yleinen
common (general, widespread)
kumota
to refute
Questions & Answers about On vaikea uskoa, että tätä yleistä myyttiä ei liene kumottu.
How is the verb structure ei liene kumottu formed in this sentence?
This is the negative perfect potential in the passive. It is made of three parts: the negative word ei, the potential connegative form of the verb to be (liene), and the passive past participle of the main verb (kumottu). Together, it means 'was probably not refuted'.
Normally, objects in passive sentences are in the nominative case. Why is tätä yleistä myyttiä in the partitive?
You are right that passive objects are usually nominative! However, the rule that negative sentences take a partitive object overrides everything else. Because the verb phrase is negative (ei liene), the object tätä yleistä myyttiä must be partitive.
What is the base verb for kumottu and how is this form made?
The base verb is kumota (to refute or overturn), which is a Type 4 verb. To form the passive past participle, you take the infinitive stem (kumo-) and add the passive marker -ttu.
Could you also say On vaikeaa uskoa instead of On vaikea uskoa?
Yes! When a sentence starts with 'It is' and is followed by an infinitive subject like uskoa, the adjective can usually be either in the nominative (vaikea) or the partitive (vaikeaa). Both are grammatically correct and very common in everyday Finnish.
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