Breakdown of Sehän on liian rikki pelastaaksemme sen kaatopaikalta.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
rikki
broken
pelastaa
to save, to rescue
liian
too (excessively)
kaatopaikka
the landfill
Questions & Answers about Sehän on liian rikki pelastaaksemme sen kaatopaikalta.
How exactly does pelastaaksemme translate to "for us to save"?
This uses the excessive resultative construction. It is built from the 1st infinitive of the verb pelastaa (to save), plus the translative marker -kse- (which indicates a result or condition), and the 1st person plural possessive suffix -mme (our). Following liian rikki (too broken), the whole word pelastaaksemme literally means "for our saving" or "so that we could save".
Why is the object sen in the genitive-looking accusative case instead of the partitive sitä?
The verb pelastaa (to save/rescue) generally takes a total object when an action is complete and successful. Even though it is governed by an infinitive structure here (pelastaaksemme), the verb still dictates the object's case. Because we are talking about saving the entire object, se takes the total object form sen.
What nuance does the particle -hän add to Sehän?
The enclitic particle -hän / -han is used to appeal to shared knowledge or to state something that should be obvious to both speakers. In this sentence, it translates to "you know" or "after all," implying that both people can look at the object and clearly see it is completely ruined.
Why is the word rikki used here instead of a participle like rikkoutunut?
While rikkoutunut means something has broken (the process) and rikottu means it was broken by someone (passive), rikki simply describes the current, static condition of being broken. It is an indeclinable word (it never changes endings for case or number) and is the most natural, everyday way to say an item is physically broken in Finnish.
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