Breakdown of Ne patentoi keksinnön vuonna 1990.
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
vuosi
year
keksintö
invention
patentoida
to patent
Questions & Answers about Ne patentoi keksinnön vuonna 1990.
Why is the year 1990 in the nominative case instead of a time or location case?
When expressing a specific year in Finnish, the word for year takes the essive case (vuonna), but the compound number that follows it stays strictly in the basic nominative case. Here, 1990 is read uninflected as tuhatyhdeksänsataayhdeksänkymmentä.
Why does the plural pronoun ne pair with the singular verb form patentoi?
This is a standard feature of spoken Finnish (puhekieli). Speakers usually replace the formal human plural he (they) with ne, and pair it with the third-person singular verb form instead of a plural one. In standard written Finnish, this would be He patentoivat.
Is patentoi in the present or past tense here?
It is in the past tense, even though it looks identical to the present tense. For verbs ending in -oida (like patentoida), the past tense marker -i merges invisibly with the stem's existing i. The context clue vuonna 1990 confirms it happened in the past.
Why does the object keksintö change to keksinnön?
Because the action of patenting was fully completed, the object takes the genitive-like accusative ending -n (total object). Adding this ending closes the final syllable, triggering consonant gradation that softens the strong nt in keksintö to a weak nn in keksinnön.
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