Breakdown of Minun pitää tarkentaa, että hän on se, joka aloitti tämän erimielisyyden.
tämä
this
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
minä
I
Questions & Answers about Minun pitää tarkentaa, että hän on se, joka aloitti tämän erimielisyyden.
Why do we use se in hän on se, even though we are talking about a person?
In focus structures like this, the demonstrative pronoun se acts as an anchor for the relative clause, translating to 'the one'. You use se even when referring to people because saying hän on hän, joka sounds unnatural in Finnish.
Is the comma before joka strictly necessary?
Yes. Unlike English, Finnish grammar strictly requires a comma before a relative pronoun like joka when it introduces a relative clause.
Why is the object tämän erimielisyyden in the genitive shape rather than the partitive?
Because the action of starting the disagreement is seen as a complete, finished action. Therefore, the active verb aloitti takes a total object, which ends in -n (the accusative case that looks identical to the genitive for singular nouns).
Why is the first word Minun instead of Minä?
The verb pitää is acting as a necessity verb here, meaning 'must' or 'have to'. Necessity verbs require their subject to be in the genitive case, so minä becomes minun.