Breakdown of Tiimalasi osoittautui tarpeelliseksi, koska se avasi pienen oven.
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
pieni
small
koska
because
avata
to open
ovi
door
osoittautua
to turn out to be
tiimalasi
hourglass
tarpeellinen
necessary
Questions & Answers about Tiimalasi osoittautui tarpeelliseksi, koska se avasi pienen oven.
Why does the adjective tarpeellinen take the -ksi ending to become tarpeelliseksi?
The verb osoittautua (to turn out to be) requires the word describing the outcome to be in the translative case. The translative case is often used to describe a change into a new state or role. Because the hourglass turned out to be necessary, tarpeellinen takes the translative ending -ksi.
How do we get from the base form tarpeellinen to the stem used in tarpeelliseksi?
Finnish words ending in -nen change their ending to -se- before adding most case suffixes. Therefore, the base adjective tarpeellinen drops the -nen for -se- to form the stem tarpeellise-. When you attach the translative suffix -ksi to this stem, you get tarpeelliseksi.
Why are pienen and oven in the genitive-like accusative case here instead of the partitive case?
They form a total object. The verb avata (to open) expresses a completed action here: the small door was successfully and entirely opened. Since the subordinate clause has a clear subject (se), the total object takes the accusative case that looks identical to the genitive, ending in -n.
What are the root words that make up the compound word tiimalasi?
Tiimalasi is a compound of tiima (an older Finnish word for hour, borrowed from the Swedish word timme) and lasi (glass). Just like in English, it literally translates to hourglass.
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