Learn Finnish: Ruoka ei ole vielä valmis. - The food is not ready yet.

Ruoka ei ole vielä valmis.

The food is not ready yet.

Breakdown of Ruoka ei ole vielä valmis.

olla

to be

no / not (negative verb)

Questions & Answers about Ruoka ei ole vielä valmis.

The affirmative sentence would be "Ruoka on valmis". Why doesn't the negative just use on?

In Finnish, you don't say ei on. The verb "to be" (olla) has a special form used just for negative sentences, which is ole. You combine the negative verb (ei for he/she/it) with this form to get ei ole ("is not").

Is ei just the regular Finnish word for "no"?

It translates to "no", but in Finnish, it's actually a verb! Because it's a verb, it changes to match the subject. Here, ruoka (food) acts as an "it" (third-person singular), so we use ei. If the sentence were "I am not ready", you would use the "I" form: en ole.

Does the word ole change if we change the subject to "we" or "they"?

No, ole stays exactly the same! In negative sentences, the negative verb (en, et, ei, etc.) does all the changing to match the subject. The main verb gets frozen in its negative base form (called the connegative). For example, "we are not" is emme ole.

The English translation puts "yet" at the very end. Does vielä have to go in the middle in Finnish?

Finnish word order is quite flexible, but adverbs like vielä very commonly sit right after the verb. Placing it immediately after the verb phrase ei ole and before the adjective sounds very natural, though putting it at the end (Ruoka ei ole valmis vielä) would also be perfectly understood.