Tätä lehmää ei ole polttomerkitty.

Sentence Discussions Finnish
#1
EnglishTranslation

This cow is not branded.

I cannot figure out the use of the partitive in this sentence.

#2

Because it’s a negative passive sentence?

#3

Wouldn’t that rather be “Tätä lehmää ei merkitä”?

I’m thinking: “Tämä lehmä on nuori ja ei vielä ole polttomerkitty”.

#4

That’s present negative passive.

merkitään - present passive
ei merkitä - present negative passive
merkittiin - past passive
ei merkitty - past negative passive
on merkitty - present perfect passive
ei ole merkitty - present perfect negative passive ← what we have here

The thing is that you could regard “merkitty” as an adjective, but it isn’t. It’s a passive participle. If you want the subject to be in nominative, you need to use a “real” adjective. Compare:
Ovea ei ole avattu.
Ovi ei ole auki.

In the case of merkitä, you would have to use something like “merkitsemätön”:
Tämä lehmä on merkitsemätön.

That’s a good question. I don’t know what happens if you try to combine it like that.

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#5

Thanks for clearing this up! I think I would have been less confused if the English had been “This cow has not been branded.”

Maybe “Tämä lehmä on nuori ja sitä ei vielä ole polttomerkitty”.”?

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