Breakdown of Onko tämä selittämätön kummittelu vaarallista?
tämä
this
olla
to be
vaarallinen
dangerous
selittämätön
unexplained
kummittelu
the haunting
Questions & Answers about Onko tämä selittämätön kummittelu vaarallista?
How is the word selittämätön formed?
It is the negative participle form of the verb selittää (to explain). By adding the suffix -maton or -mätön to the strong stem, you create an adjective meaning 'un-X-ed' or 'un-X-able'. Here, it means 'unexplained' or 'inexplicable'.
What is the root of the noun kummittelu?
It comes from the verb kummitella (to haunt). Adding the -u suffix to a verb stem often creates an action noun, so kummittelu means 'haunting' or 'the act of haunting'. The base word for all of these is the noun kummitus (a ghost).
Why is the adjective vaarallista in the partitive case, while the subject is in the nominative?
When the subject of a 'to be' sentence is an abstract concept or an uncountable mass, the describing adjective (the predicative) must be in the partitive case. Because kummittelu (haunting) is an abstract action rather than a concrete object, the adjective vaarallinen becomes vaarallista.
How would the grammar change if we turned this into a dynamic existential clause, such as 'Unexplained haunting occurs'?
In our current sentence, tämä selittämätön kummittelu is a specific nominative subject being described. If you used an existential verb of occurrence to say 'Unexplained haunting occurs', this abstract subject would switch to the partitive case to show an undefined amount, and the verb would be strictly 3rd person singular: Tapahtuu selittämätöntä kummittelua.
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