Learn Finnish: Kissa ei ole metsässä. - The cat is not in the forest.

Kissa ei ole metsässä.

The cat is not in the forest.

Breakdown of Kissa ei ole metsässä.

no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)

metsä

forest

Questions & Answers about Kissa ei ole metsässä.

Why does metsässä end in -ssä instead of -ssa?

This happens because of vowel harmony. The root word metsä (forest) contains the front vowels e and ä. To match those, the 'in' ending must also use the front vowel ä, making it -ssä.

Does the core word metsä change when we add the -ssä ending?

No, it doesn't. Metsä is a non-gradating noun, which means its stem stays exactly the same. You just attach the -ssä directly to the end of the basic dictionary word.

Why is the verb ole here instead of on?

In Finnish, making a sentence negative changes the main verb. The word ei (not) does the heavy lifting, and the main verb olla (to be) takes a special dictionary-like form. For olla, that form is ole. So, on (is) becomes ei ole (is not).

How do we know this means 'The cat' and not 'A cat' since there is no word for 'the'?

Finnish does not have articles like 'a' or 'the'. However, word order gives us a clue! Because kissa is at the very beginning of the sentence, it usually refers to a specific, already-known cat, which we translate as 'The cat'.