Breakdown of Oletteko te viidestään rakentaneet nämä isot marionetit?
tämä
this
olla
to be
te
you (plural/formal)
iso
big
rakentaa
to build
marionetti
marionette
viidestään
the five of us / the five of them
Questions & Answers about Oletteko te viidestään rakentaneet nämä isot marionetit?
What exactly does viidestään mean and how is it formed?
It means "a group of five" or in this context, "the five of you". It is formed by taking the numeral viisi, putting it in the elative case (viidestä), and adding a possessive suffix (here, -stään). This structure is used to express that an action is done exclusively by a group of a specific size.
Since the subject is te (you plural), why isn't the word viidestänne?
That is a great observation! Strictly grammatically, it should be viidestänne to match the second person plural. However, the third-person suffix -staan/-stään has become a fixed, fossilized ending in modern Finnish. It is now completely standard to use -staan/-stään for all persons, meaning whether it is "the five of us", "you", or "them" is simply inferred from the subject.
Why are the words nämä isot marionetit in the nominative plural case rather than the partitive?
They form the object of the sentence. Because the building process is finished and the sentence implies the whole group of marionettes is complete, it requires a total object. For plural words, the total object looks exactly like the nominative plural (ending in -t). If the building was still in progress, you would use the partitive plural: näitä isoja marionetteja.
Why is the verb split into Oletteko and rakentaneet?
This sentence uses the perfect tense to say "have built". It is formed with the auxiliary verb olla conjugated to match te (olette), plus the main verb rakentaa in the plural past participle form (rakentaneet). The question clitic -ko is attached to the auxiliary verb and moved to the front to form a yes/no question.
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