Breakdown of He saapuivat majalle ennen lumisadetta.
he
they
ennen
before
saapua
to arrive
lumisade
the snowfall
Questions & Answers about He saapuivat majalle ennen lumisadetta.
How would we use the modal verb saattaa from this lesson to say "They might arrive at the hut before the snowfall"?
You would conjugate saattaa to match the subject (he saattavat) and change the main verb into its basic dictionary form, the 1st infinitive. The sentence becomes: He saattavat saapua majalle ennen lumisadetta.
Why is the destination majalle in the allative case (-lle) here?
The verb saapua (to arrive) requires a location case indicating movement towards a destination. You can use the internal illative case (like majaan, into the hut) if they literally go inside, or the external allative case (majalle, at/to the hut) if they just arrive at the location, which is what the speaker chose here.
Why is the word lumisade in the partitive case (lumisadetta)?
The word ennen (before) functions as a preposition in this sentence. In Finnish, words that directly follow prepositions must almost always be put into the partitive case.
How is the partitive form lumisadetta formed from lumisade?
Lumisade is a compound word ending in sade (rain), which is a noun ending in -e. Words ending in -e take the partitive ending -tta or -ttä. You simply add -tta to the nominative basic form, resulting in lumisadetta.