Breakdown of He eivät olleet löytäneet vakautta, me taas onnistuimme.
olla
to be
me
we
he
they
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
löytää
to find
onnistua
to succeed
vakaus
the stability
taas
whereas / on the other hand (by contrast)
Questions & Answers about He eivät olleet löytäneet vakautta, me taas onnistuimme.
Why is taas placed after me instead of at the beginning of the clause like 'whereas' in English?
While English uses 'whereas' at the start of a clause, Finnish places taas directly after the specific word being contrasted. Here, me (we) is contrasted with he (they). Placing taas right after the subject highlights this 'us vs. them' dynamic, acting almost like an attached particle to mean 'we, on the other hand'.
Since taas usually means 'again', how can I easily tell it means 'whereas' here?
Word order is your biggest clue. When taas means 'again', it generally acts as a time adverb and follows the verb (e.g., Me onnistuimme taas for 'We succeeded again'). When it sits immediately after the subject or topic at the start of a clause, it almost always functions as a connector of contrast meaning 'whereas'.
Could I get a quick refresher on the negative past perfect tense in eivät olleet löytäneet?
Certainly! The negative past perfect (pluperfect) requires three components: the conjugated negative verb (eivät), the past participle of the auxiliary verb olla (olleet), and the past participle of the main verb (löytäneet). Notice that because the subject is plural (he), both participles must take the plural -t ending.
Is vakautta in the partitive case because it is an abstract concept, or because the sentence is negative?
It is in the partitive case strictly because the sentence is negative. While vakaus (stability) is indeed an abstract noun, the overriding rule in Finnish is that the object of a negative action (eivät olleet löytäneet) must always take the partitive case, regardless of whether the noun is abstract or concrete.
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