Breakdown of Mies ei tee työtä illalla.
mies
man
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
tehdä
to do
työ
work
ilta
evening
Questions & Answers about Mies ei tee työtä illalla.
Why is the word for work työtä instead of the basic form työ?
Because this is a negative sentence (ei tee). In Finnish, when an action is not happening, the object of that action must be in the partitive case. The partitive form of työ is työtä.
Why does the verb look like tee here instead of tekee?
When you make a sentence negative, the main verb drops its personal ending. You use the negative word (here, ei) plus this shortened form of the verb. So, while 'he does' is tekee, 'he does not do' is ei tee.
How does illalla mean 'in the evening'?
The basic word for 'evening' is ilta. Adding the -lla ending (which often translates to 'on' or 'at') is the standard way to talk about times of day in Finnish. Also, adding this ending causes the strong lt in the middle of the word to soften to a double ll, resulting in illalla.
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