Learn Finnish: Tämä ei ole suolaa.

Tämä ei ole suolaa.

This is not salt.

Breakdown of Tämä ei ole suolaa.

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

suola

salt

Questions & Answers about Tämä ei ole suolaa.

Why is suolaa in the partitive case here?

Because it is a mass noun (an uncountable substance). When telling what a mass noun is using the verb olla (to be), Finnish requires the partitive case. So, we say Tämä ei ole suolaa instead of just using the basic form suola.

Would it still be suolaa if the sentence was positive, like 'This is salt'?

Yes! With the verb olla (to be), uncountable words like salt, water, or coffee are put in the partitive case regardless of whether the sentence is positive or negative. 'This is salt' translates to Tämä on suolaa.

How do we build the partitive form of suola?

The basic word is suola. Because it ends in a single vowel (-a) and has a non-gradating stem, you simply attach another -a to the end to get suolaa.

Why is the phrase for 'is not' translated as ei ole instead of ei on?

In Finnish, the negative word acts like a verb that changes depending on the subject. For 'it is not' or 'this is not', we use ei. The main verb that follows must drop its normal ending and take a special negative form. For the verb olla (to be), that special form is ole.