Breakdown of Jään murruttua vetokoirat pysähtyivät.
jää
the ice
pysähtyä
to stop (moving)
murtua
to break (intransitive)
vetokoira
sled dog
Questions & Answers about Jään murruttua vetokoirat pysähtyivät.
How does the past temporal construction work in Jään murruttua?
It translates to 'After the ice broke'. Because the ice (the subject of breaking) is different from the sled dogs (the main subject), we put the word jää in the genitive case (jään). Then we take the passive past participle of the verb murtua (murruttu) and add the partitive ending -a, making murruttua.
Why do we use murruttua instead of murrettua here?
This highlights the difference between the intransitive verb murtua (to break on its own) and the transitive verb murtaa (to break something). The passive past participle of murtua is murruttu, leading to murruttua. If we used murrettua, it would come from murtaa and imply that someone specifically broke the ice.
Why doesn't murruttua have a possessive suffix, like earlier temporal constructions we've learned?
In temporal constructions, you only add a possessive suffix if the subject of the action is the same as the subject of the main sentence. Here, the ice breaks but the dogs stop. Because the subjects are different, we use the explicit genitive subject jään and leave the participle murruttua without a possessive suffix.
Could I express this same idea without using the temporal construction?