Breakdown of Kreivi ja paroni olivat vihaisia. Heidän motiivinsa oli kosto.
olla
to be
ja
and
he
they
vihainen
angry
motiivi
motive
kreivi
count
paroni
baron
kosto
revenge
Questions & Answers about Kreivi ja paroni olivat vihaisia. Heidän motiivinsa oli kosto.
Why does the second sentence use heidän instead of näiden?
The current lesson focuses on using hän/he versus tämä/nämä for text cohesion. Heidän (the genitive of he) refers back to the main subject of the previous sentence (kreivi ja paroni). If the previous sentence had introduced a secondary group, such as an object, and we wanted to refer to them instead of the subject, we would use näiden (the genitive of nämä). Because the count and the baron are the main subjects, he is the correct base pronoun.
Why does motiivinsa have the -nsa suffix if the sentence already says heidän?
In standard written Finnish, when you use a personal pronoun in the genitive case to show possession (like heidän), you must also attach the matching possessive suffix to the noun. For the third person, this suffix is -nsa or -nsä. While everyday spoken Finnish often drops the suffix and just says heidän motiivi, standard written Finnish requires both.
Why is vihaisia in the partitive plural instead of the nominative plural?
When a sentence follows the pattern 'Subject is Adjective' (a predicative sentence) and the subject is plural, the describing adjective must be in the partitive plural. Because kreivi ja paroni form a plural subject, the adjective takes the partitive plural form vihaisia. The nominative plural vihaiset would be used if modifying a noun directly, such as in vihaiset miehet (the angry men).
Why is the verb singular (oli) in the second sentence if the motive belongs to multiple people?
The verb always agrees with the grammatical subject of its own sentence. Here, the subject is motiivinsa (their motive), where the core noun motiivi is singular. Even though the motive belongs to multiple people (heidän), there is only one shared motive being discussed, so the verb takes the singular form oli.
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