Questions & Answers about Mä tiiän, et me etsitään toista johtolankaa.
Why is the passive form etsitään used here instead of the standard 'we' form etsimme?
In spoken and colloquial Finnish, it is the standard practice to use the passive form of the verb when the subject is me (we). Even though the standard written form is me etsimme, in everyday speech you will almost always hear me etsitään.
Why is toista johtolankaa in the partitive case?
The verb etsiä (to look for, to search) is a partitive verb. Because searching is an ongoing action with an uncertain outcome, it requires its object to be in the partitive case. Both the pronoun toinen and the noun johtolanka get the partitive ending, becoming toista johtolankaa.
What do the words mä, tiiän, and et indicate about the style of this sentence?
They show that this sentence is written in colloquial, everyday spoken Finnish. Mä is the spoken version of minä (I), tiiän is a common reduction of tiedän (know) where the 'd' is dropped, and et is short for the conjunction että (that).
Could toista johtolankaa also mean 'the second clue'?
Yes. The word toinen translates to both 'another' and 'second' (as in the ordinal number). Depending on the exact context of the conversation, they could be looking for 'another clue' in general, or specifically 'the second clue'.