Breakdown of On järjetöntä väittää, että poliisi peittelee avaruusolentoja.
olla
to be
poliisi
the police / police officer
että
that (conjunction)
väittää
to claim
avaruusolento
alien
järjetön
irrational
peitellä
to cover up
Questions & Answers about On järjetöntä väittää, että poliisi peittelee avaruusolentoja.
Since this lesson is about the clitic muka, where would we add it to emphasize our doubt?
You can add muka to the subordinate clause to highlight your disbelief. Placing it after the subject (...että poliisi muka peittelee...) or the verb (...peittelee muka...) translates to 'that the police supposedly cover up'. This perfectly matches the sentence's theme of calling a claim irrational.
Why is the adjective järjetöntä in the partitive case instead of the nominative järjetön?
When a sentence follows the structure 'It is [adjective] to [verb]', the infinitive verb (here, väittää) acts as the subject. In Finnish, whenever an infinitive or a clause is the actual subject of the sentence, the describing adjective must be in the partitive case.
The English translation says 'the police are', so why is the Finnish verb peittelee in the singular?
In English, 'police' is treated as a plural noun, but the Finnish word poliisi is grammatically singular when referring to the police force as an institution or to a single officer. Therefore, it requires the third-person singular verb peittelee.
What is the difference between the verbs peitellä and peittää?
Peittää is the basic verb meaning 'to cover' (like putting a physical lid on a box). Peitellä is a derived continuous verb that implies a more prolonged or involved action, like tucking a child into bed, or in this figurative context, continuously covering up a secret.
Why does peitellä require the partitive plural object avaruusolentoja?
Because peitellä expresses an ongoing, continuous action rather than a finalized event, its object must be in the partitive case. It is plural because the police are accused of covering up multiple aliens (avaruus + olento).
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