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Tuomituilla ei ole kotia, koska haltiat vainoavat heitä.

Tuomituilla ei ole kotia, koska haltiat vainoavat heitä.
The condemned do not have a home, because the elves persecute them.
From Lesson 359:Participles as nouns·Finnish

Questions & Answers about Tuomituilla ei ole kotia, koska haltiat vainoavat heitä.

How is tuomituilla functioning as a noun in this sentence?
It is a substantivized passive past participle. The base verb is tuomita (to condemn), making the participle tuomittu (condemned). By treating it directly as a noun, we can decline it in the plural adessive case (-illa) to mean "the condemned people" and use it as the owner in a "have" structure.
Why does tuomituilla have a single t when the basic participle is tuomittu?
This happens because of consonant gradation. When we add the plural -i- and the closed syllable ending -lla to the stem, the strong double -tt- weakens to a single -t-.
Why is koti in the partitive case (kotia) here?
This is a strict rule from earlier levels that is always important to remember: in negative possession sentences using ei ole, the thing that someone does not have must always be in the partitive case.
Why does the verb vainoavat require the partitive object heitä?
The verb vainota (to persecute or stalk) is an inherently partitive verb. Because persecution describes an ongoing, continuous action rather than a completed one with a clear endpoint, its object must always be in the partitive case.

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