Breakdown of Minulla ei ole enää sokeria.
olla
to be
minä
I
ei
no / not (negative verb)
enää
anymore
sokeri
sugar
Questions & Answers about Minulla ei ole enää sokeria.
Why does sokeri have an -a at the end here?
In Finnish, negative sentences like "I don't have" require the object to be in the partitive case. Furthermore, sokeri (sugar) is an uncountable mass noun, which normally takes the partitive anyway! Because the basic word sokeri ends in a single vowel, we just add -a to make it sokeria.
Why does it use -a instead of -ä for the partitive ending?
This is because of vowel harmony. The word sokeri contains the back vowel o. If a word has back vowels (a, o, u), the ending must also use a back vowel. Therefore, the partitive ending becomes -a instead of -ä.
Why does the sentence start with Minulla instead of Minä?
Finnish doesn't have a direct verb for "to have". Instead, it uses a structure that literally translates to "at me is". Minulla means "at me", and ei ole means "is not". So literally, the sentence says "At me is not anymore sugar."
Can I put enää at the end of the sentence?
Usually, enää (anymore or any longer) comes right after the negative verb phrase, just like here: ei ole enää. Putting it at the very end (Minulla ei ole sokeria enää) would be understood, but it sounds a bit less natural in Finnish.
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