When investigating cold cases, you often need to rule out unlikely scenarios. To state what probably did not happen in the past, Finnish uses the perfect potential negative.
The Perfect Potential Negative (Singular)
In a previous lesson, you used lienee plus the past participle for positive guesses. To make it negative, drop the ending from lienee to get the uninflected auxiliary liene, and place the appropriate negative verb before it.
For a third-person singular subject (like "he", "she", or "the suspect"), use ei liene followed by the active past participle of the main verb (ending in -nut or -nyt).
| The suspect probably did not stage the robbery. | Epäilty ei liene lavastanut ryöstöä. |
| Neither probably blackmailed the murderer. | Kumpikaan ei liene kiristänyt murhaajaa. |
| He probably did not kill the victim. | Hän ei liene tappanut uhria. |
You can also use this structure with the verb olla (to be) to say what someone probably did not have, or what probably was not the case. The past participle of olla is ollut.
| The fugitive probably did not have an alibi. | Karkulaisella ei liene ollut alibia. |
| There probably weren't fingerprints on the weapon. | Aseessa ei liene ollut sormenjälkiä. |
The Perfect Potential Negative (Plural)
If the subject is plural, the negative verb changes to eivät. The potential auxiliary remains liene, but the main verb's past participle must take the plural ending -neet.
| The villains probably did not plan a conspiracy. | Roistot eivät liene suunnitelleet salaliittoa. |
| The witnesses probably did not blackmail the fugitive. | Todistajat eivät liene kiristäneet karkulaista. |