Breakdown of Ei, juna ei ole vielä asemalla.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
vielä
yet / still
juna
train
asema
station
Questions & Answers about Ei, juna ei ole vielä asemalla.
Why does the sentence use asemalla instead of asemassa for "at the station"?
The ending -lla is the adessive case, which generally means "on" or "at". While a station is a building, Finnish treats transit hubs like stations (asema) and bus stops (pysäkki) as open areas or points on a map. Therefore, you use -lla to say you are "at" the station.
Why is the word ei used twice here?
Does vielä always mean "yet"?
It can mean "yet" or "still". In negative sentences like this one, ei ... vielä means "not ... yet". If the sentence were positive, like Juna on vielä asemalla, it would mean "The train is still at the station."
Why does the ending on asemalla use an "a" instead of an "ä"?
Because of vowel harmony. The root word asema contains the back vowel a. Even though it also contains the neutral vowel e, the back vowel dictates that the ending must also use a back vowel, making it -lla instead of -llä.
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