Negation with 'ei' — Finnish Grammar

English negates by leaving the main verb alone and inflecting a helper: do not, does not, did not. Finnish does the opposite. It has a verb meaning "not" — — which takes the personal endings, and the main verb loses its own ending and stands bare.

So the word carrying the person is the negative one. is I read. Negate it and the -n moves off the verb and onto the negative word: en now holds the I, and what is left of the verb is the bare .

The Negative Verb by Person

- I don't
- you don't
- he/she doesn't
- we don't
- you (plural) don't
- they don't

How a Negative Present Sentence Works

Put the right form of the negative verb first, then the main verb with its personal ending stripped off.

Minä luen. → Minä en lue.
I read → I don't read.
Hän puhuu englantia. → Hän ei puhu englantia.
He/she speaks → doesn't speak English.
Emme tiedä.
We don't know.
He eivät asu täällä.
They don't live here.

The Object Changes Its Ending Too

Negating a sentence does something English would never do: it changes the ending on the object. A whole, finished object takes -n, but nothing is finished in a sentence that says it did not happen, so the object switches to the ending for an open, unfinished amount — the partitive.

Luen kirjan. → En lue kirjaa.
I read the book → I don't read the book.

kirja-n becomes kirja-a — the verb was negated, and the object felt it

Minulla ei ole autoa.
I don't have a car.
Hän ei syö lihaa.
He/she doesn't eat meat.

This pairing of negation with that ending is among the most reliable rules in the language.

In the Past

The past has no negative form of its own. Instead the negative verb combines with a form of the main verb ending in -nut or -nyt, and -neet when the subject is plural. The past marker -i- disappears entirely.

En mennyt sinne.
I didn't go there.
Hän ei tullut.
He/she didn't come.
Emme nähneet mitään.
We didn't see anything.

"is not" and Just "No"

With , the negative is … On its own, is also the plain word for "no".

Hän ei ole täällä.
He/she is not here.
Ei, kiitos.
No, thank you.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Finnish course

69 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 16. A few of them, with the words “Negation with 'ei'” is about in bold:

Hän nukkuu myös. Hän ei nuku.
He is also sleeping. She isn't.
Lesson 16
Tunnen oloni mahtavaksi! En ole sairas. Olen terve.
I feel great! I am not sick. I am healthy.
Lesson 64
En ole nähnyt sinua yhdeksään vuoteen!
I haven't seen you for nine years!
Lesson 175

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