Breakdown of Tukipilarit olivat sortuneet sitä mukaa kun pohjavesi oli noussut.
olla
to be
nousta
to get up / to rise, to go up
sortua
to collapse
sitä mukaa kun
as / in proportion as (at the same rate)
tukipilari
support pillar
pohjavesi
groundwater
Questions & Answers about Tukipilarit olivat sortuneet sitä mukaa kun pohjavesi oli noussut.
What is the difference between using sitä mukaa kun and just kun in this sentence?
While kun simply means 'when', the phrase sitä mukaa kun emphasizes a proportional, parallel progression. It means 'at the same rate as' or 'in proportion as', showing that the collapsing of the pillars and the rising of the water were a linked, continuous process.
The word mukaa looks like mukaan (along with / according to). Why is there no 'n' at the end?
They come from the same root, but sitä mukaa is a fixed expression. In standard Finnish, you cannot add an 'n' to it, even though native speakers sometimes incorrectly say sitä mukaan in casual speech. You must always use sitä mukaa kun for this grammatical structure.
Why are both verbs (olivat sortuneet and oli noussut) in the past perfect (plusquamperfect) tense?
The past perfect is used to describe actions that were completed before another point in the past. Because these two events happened continuously alongside each other in that 'deep past', they both take the past perfect tense to match the implied timeline of the broader narrative.
Can sortua be used for things other than physical structures collapsing?
Yes! While it literally means 'to collapse' or 'to cave in' (like the tukipilarit here), at the B2 level you will often see it used metaphorically. For example, it is commonly used when someone yields to pressure, succumbs to a vice, or gives in to temptation (sortua kiusaukseen).
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