Breakdown of Virhe jäi huomaamattomaksi, joten uutinen julkaistiin.
jäädä
to stay
virhe
error
uutinen
news
joten
so, therefore
julkaista
to publish
huomaamaton
unnoticed
Questions & Answers about Virhe jäi huomaamattomaksi, joten uutinen julkaistiin.
Why is huomaamattomaksi in the translative case here?
The verb jäädä (to remain/stay) requires the translative case (ending -ksi) when expressing the resulting state or condition that something ends up in. Here, the mistake ends up in the state of being unnoticed (huomaamaton -> huomaamattomaksi).
How exactly is the word huomaamattomaksi formed from the base verb?
It starts with the verb huomata (to notice). You add the negative adjective suffix -maton to get huomaamaton (unnoticed). When you add a case ending like the translative -ksi, words ending in -ton change their stem to -ttoma-, resulting in huomaamattomaksi.
I usually hear people say "jäi huomaamatta". Could I use that instead of "jäi huomaamattomaksi"?
Yes, absolutely! Jäi huomaamatta uses the 3rd infinitive abessive (without noticing) and is actually more common in everyday Finnish. Both mean "remained unnoticed," but jäi huomaamattomaksi emphasizes the state of the mistake, while jäi huomaamatta emphasizes the action that failed to happen.
Why is uutinen in the nominative case, shouldn't the object of publishing be in the genitive/accusative (uutisen)?
Because julkaistiin is in the passive past tense ("was published"). A major rule in Finnish is that the object of a passive verb takes the basic nominative form, losing the -n ending it would normally have in an active sentence.
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