Breakdown of Mies ei juo vahvaa viiniä.
mies
man
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
viini
wine
juoda
to drink
vahva
strong
Questions & Answers about Mies ei juo vahvaa viiniä.
Why is it vahvaa instead of just vahva?
In Finnish, adjectives must match the case of the noun they describe. Because the noun here is in the partitive case (viiniä), the adjective must also be in the partitive case. So, vahva (strong) becomes vahvaa.
Why is the wine (viini) in the partitive case (viiniä) here?
When you have a negative sentence with an object (the thing being acted upon), that object must be in the partitive case. Because the man does not drink the wine, viini becomes viiniä.
Why do vahva and viini get different partitive endings (-a vs -ä)?
This is because of vowel harmony. Vahva has a back vowel (a), so it takes the back-vowel ending -a to become vahvaa. Viini only has the neutral vowel (i), which defaults to front-vowel endings when no back vowels are present, so it takes the -ä ending to become viiniä.
Why is it ei juo instead of ei juoda?
In negative sentences, you don't use the dictionary form of the verb (juoda). Instead, you use the verb's stem. You can usually find this by taking the 'minä' form (juon, I drink) and dropping the -n. This leaves you with the stem juo for the negative sentence.
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