Breakdown of Löydettyäni parantajan sain amuletin.
löytää
to find
saada
to get
parantaja
healer
amuletti
amulet
Questions & Answers about Löydettyäni parantajan sain amuletin.
Why does löydettyäni mean 'after I found' if löydetty is the passive past participle?
In the past temporal construction, you use the passive past participle stem (like löydetty-) plus a partitive ending (-ä) and a possessive suffix (-ni). Even though it is built from a passive form, the possessive suffix makes the meaning active: -ni tells us that you were the one who did the finding.
What is the -ä- doing in the middle of löydettyäni?
It is the partitive ending. The strict formula for the past temporal construction is: passive past participle stem + partitive ending (-a or -ä) + possessive suffix. Because the verb löytää has front vowels (ö and y), vowel harmony dictates using -ä-.
Why is the object parantajan in the genitive case?
Objects attached to a temporal construction follow standard rules for total objects. Because the action of finding has a clear subject (indicated by the -ni suffix), the total object takes the normal genitive-looking accusative ending -n.
How would I say this using normal spoken Finnish instead of the temporal construction?
The temporal construction is a concise form mostly used in written Finnish. In everyday speech, you would usually use a regular subordinate clause with kun (when) or sen jälkeen kun (after): Sen jälkeen kun olin löytänyt parantajan, sain amuletin.