Breakdown of Piilottaapa todisteen minne tahansa, joku löytää sen aina.
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
aina
always
löytää
to find
joku
somebody, someone
piilottaa
to hide
todiste
evidence
minne
where to
tahansa
any / -ever
Questions & Answers about Piilottaapa todisteen minne tahansa, joku löytää sen aina.
How does the concessive conditional structure work in the phrase piilottaapa ... minne tahansa?
The verb piilottaa takes the emphatic clitic -pa and is placed at the very beginning of the sentence. Paired with the interrogative word minne and the particle tahansa, it forms the structure meaning "Wherever one hides...".
Why is the verb piilottaa in the third-person singular if there is no subject pronoun?
This is an example of the Finnish "zero person" construction. When a third-person singular verb is used without a subject, it expresses a general truth applying to anyone, much like the generic "you" or "one" in English.
Why is the object todisteen in the genitive-accusative case instead of the partitive?
The verb piilottaa takes a total object here because hiding the piece of evidence is viewed as a completed action. Even though this is a "zero person" sentence, it grammatically behaves like a normal active sentence, so the singular total object takes the -n ending.
Why does the sentence use the directional minne (to where) instead of the static missä (where)?
Verbs of placing or leaving things, like piilottaa, require a directional location in Finnish. You are hiding the evidence into a place, rather than just performing the action of hiding while already located there. Thus, minne tahansa implies "to wherever".
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