Breakdown of Mies ei koskaan syö lihaa.
mies
man
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
koskaan
never / ever
syödä
to eat
liha
meat
Questions & Answers about Mies ei koskaan syö lihaa.
Why is the verb syö exactly the same here as it is in the affirmative "the man eats" (mies syö)?
Syödä (to eat) is a Type 2 verb, meaning it ends in a long vowel or diphthong plus -da/-dä. To make the negative form, you drop the -dä to get the stem syö. For the affirmative "he/she" form, Type 2 verbs also just use the stem. Because of this, both mies syö (the man eats) and mies ei syö (the man doesn't eat) use the exact same spelling for the main verb!
How do you say "never" in Finnish?
In Finnish, "never" is expressed by combining the negative verb (like en, et, or ei) with the word koskaan (ever). So ei koskaan literally translates to "does not ever". The word koskaan usually sits right next to the negative verb.
Why is the word for meat lihaa instead of its basic form liha?
Lihaa is in the partitive case. You must use the partitive case for the object of a negative sentence because the action doesn't have a completed result. Also, meat is a mass noun (an uncountable substance), and those usually take the partitive case anyway when they are the object of a sentence.
Could I change the word order and say Mies ei syö koskaan lihaa?
Yes, Finnish word order is quite flexible. While placing koskaan right after the negative verb (ei koskaan syö) is very common and natural, putting it after the main verb (ei syö koskaan) is also perfectly correct and means the same thing.
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