Breakdown of Hän teki paljon töitä, joten hän tuli ylennetyksi.
hän
he / she
paljon
a lot
tehdä
to do
työ
work
tulla
to become
joten
so, therefore
ylentää
to promote
Questions & Answers about Hän teki paljon töitä, joten hän tuli ylennetyksi.
How does the phrase tuli ylennetyksi work to mean "got promoted"?
This is the translative participle construction of passive experience. It combines the verb tulla (here in the past tense tuli) with the passive past participle of ylentää (to promote). By putting the participle in the translative case (-ksi), it highlights a change of state, translating nicely to the English "got promoted."
Could I just use the regular passive and say hänet ylennettiin instead?
Yes, hänet ylennettiin (he was promoted) is perfectly correct and actually more common in everyday speech. The structure hän tuli ylennetyksi is a bit more formal but does a great job emphasizing the subject's personal experience of the event, similar to the difference between "he was promoted" and "he got promoted" in English.
Why does the word ylennetty (promoted) drop a t when it becomes ylennetyksi?
This is due to consonant gradation. When you add the translative ending -ksi to ylennetty, the k closes the preceding syllable (y-len-ne-tyk-si). A closed syllable forces the strong consonant grade (tt) to weaken to the weak grade (t).
Why is töitä in the plural partitive here instead of the singular partitive työtä?
While paljon can take the singular partitive (paljon työtä), Finnish speakers very frequently use the plural partitive (töitä) when talking about working in a general sense or doing various work tasks. Both are grammatically correct, but tehdä töitä is the most common and natural way to say "to work" or "to do work."
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